Looking cool in her weekend ware.

She likes wearing her sunglasses (for a few seconds at a time) And singing to daddy's energy drink.

Mom should have cropped this picture!

I'll share the drink with my friend Moose.

16-month Self-Portrait

Today we decided to do the family portrait version of the self-portrait. Perhaps there is a future Christmas card picture in here somewhere. . .

Bye-bye Jetta

Hello Family Vehicle.

With the upcoming addition of 1 (and possibly 2) kids to our family in the very near future, we knew we'd be having to update our vehicle situation. We tried to imagine putting 3 car seat type things in the back of the Vue and thought it would be a bit crowded.

So in cruising the internet, we thought the Mazda 5 might be our friend. Excellent ratings from the experts and from users. Good gas milage. And we tried to see one at the dealership, but cash-for-clunkers cleared their lots, and apparently there were none to be seen anywhere in Western Washington.

But we passed one on the road the other night, and it looked like it might be a little bit too small. Enough were Doug began doing some more internet research as to what would be the next best option. And on the same day of surfing the net, he found a sweet deal on a 2007 version of the Honda Odyssey. On our way to the dealership, found a Mazda 5 in a parking lot and got our of our car to walk around it. It was SMALL. It put the mini in minivan.

Long story/ drama made short, we bought the Honda last night. It's got lots of room, some nice bells, but not too many. They say the color is a sort of green color, but it would be more accurate to say that it is a medium grey.

The Jetta, oh the Jetta. She was traded in. After just a few months shy of 10 years of ownership, she is onto other pastures. Farewell, sweet Jetta.

So now, after 24 hours of Honda ownership, things are good. Looking forward to sharing our family vehicle experience with all of you sometime soon.

Family trip to the Mariners

About a week ago we went to see the Mariners. First, we stopped by the "Moose Den" to get a family portrait with the Mariner Moose. While you can't tell from this photo, we are all wearing Ichiro clothing. Kate meeting the Moose. She REALLY loves her little Moose stuffed animal - and will laugh very much when she sees it and calls it "Mooooo"

Adoption Home Study

Is it bad that I'm at the parent open house and writing this blog entry? It's a free-for-all format, and so families and students are just dropping in at random. During the time I'm the only one in the room, I've:

1) Send a test off to Publications to have it copied. One of the benefits of working for a public school!

2) Ordered a potty chair and water-proof mattress cover off of Amazon. They will be delivered on Monday. More about that below.

3) Broken out in a sweat, as my room is still uncomfortably hot. I'm in a portable this year, and with these hot days, it doesn't matter if the windows are open and the fans are blowing. It reminds me of the Columbia Building at UP - the 'temporary' post WWII portable that FINALLY was torn down a year or two after I graduated. Well, at least there aren't 33 students in here, heating/ stinking up the place right now. And I do mean literal stink. Several of the boys 6th period come directly from PE. Oh the funk.

But to get to the subject at hand. On Monday, Jesse (our foster care licenser/ yenta) came to our house for the inspection and to just get to know us better. Things went really well - we walked away with a small punch list of things to do/ buy. (See Amazon reference above.) We need to put a child-proof thingy on the closet in the theater, as there are tools in there. Need to post the Poison Control number (1-800-222-1222) next to the phone. I just typed that number from memory, as it has such beautiful symmetry. Get a new fire extinguisher, as ours is 4 pounds 15.6 ounces, and licensing requires that it be 5 pounds. No, I'm not kidding.

But basically this list is short and easy to accomplish.

Kate also made a great impression, smiling, laughing, even asking Jesse to pick her up. "Uppa, uppa." It was really cute. Jesse asked us a few more interview questions - not as many as I thought she would, but we DID each fill out a 15 page auto-biography questionnaire.

Before now, we were supposed to get information in the mail about getting fingerprinted. Jesse is going to follow up with the person who is should be getting us that. Fingerprint result turn around time is either: 2-3 weeks on the short side OR 2-3 months on the long side. Jesse felt that since we will be working with Snohomish County and that we've both been printed recently, we're more likely to be on the short end.

When our punch list is finished, Jesse will come back out to confirm things are in order. With that, once our fingerprint results come back, we are licensed. Yep. It could be just that fast. Then when Jesse hears of what may be a fit, she'll call us to ask us if we accept or decline.

That's all I know for now. Keep us in your prayers!!!

15-month stats

Another successful Dr. visit today. 2 shots, and, amazingly, no crying. Perhaps because I remembered to give her Tylenol BEFORE we went to the doctor.

She weighs 23 pounds, 12 ounces (64th percentile)
Is 30.71 inches tall (57th percentile).

An below are a couple of pictures of Kate and her grandma. Unfortunately, the pictures I thought I was taking of her and grandpa must have been on their camera, not mine!

Play time

Hey, Mom, look at me. I climbed into the toy bin all on my own this time. Watch me check out this new toy.

And here I'm practicing my fashion sense with 3D glasses.

Or maybe I'm just getting used to wearing glasses, since genetics might dictate the need for them later.

15-month self-portrait

lil rocking chair

Bedroom Re-Do

Doug decided we needed to re-do what was Kate's nursrey into a Seahawks themed room in anticipation of the boy we will be adopting. First, you can see two pictures of what it used to look like. This first wall shows a paint 'treatment' that we abandoned after one wall. Thank you to all who humored me by telling me you liked it. I thought it was near-to-awful, so I was not sad to see it go. Though the camera doesn't really capture it, the other 3 walls were green. And there was popcorn ceiling, which has been removed.

New room, with Seahawk colors. The only thing not showing in this picture are the Seahawk curtains that I'll be making sometime in the next year (ha ha). Take note of our skilled work with the chair and crown moulding!

The Spiderman poster that we inherited with the room still stays.

The shelves were originally going to be on the wall to the left, just next to the door. But because it is a pocket door, there are no studs to adhear the bracket to. So, a quick redesign moved them over to the right.

Kate v. Rose Bush

Kate and I were gardening yesterday when she decided to have a close encounter with a rose bush. It all happened so fast! She was understandibly upset, but pretty reasonable about me taking the thorns out of her skin. You have to look closely at her left cheek, but you can see her warrior wounds.

Bathroom before and after

Before. After.

After 3 years, we finally repainted the bathroom. It is no longer poop brown. Never a good color for a bathroom. We also refinished the stain on the cabinets (that's another story for another day), painted the ceiling and put in new towel fixtures. I'm quite happy with the result.

14-month self-portrait (finally)

The picture was taken a couple of days late, but I don't think that will nominate me for "Bad Mommy of the Year". Another thing you should know. Every time I type the word 'month' for these entries, it starts off as 'moth' and I have to fix it. Sigh.

Adoption updates

I know I said I'd be writing more frequently about this whole process, but I feel like I've been so busy this summer, blogging has fell by the way side. Of course, I'll be saying the same thing when school starts up . . .



In mid June we met with Carol, the adoption lady at Catholic Community Services. Heard about the different programs they offer. We could adopt a Korean baby for $25, 000. Or hold our breath with a private state-side adoption for about $20,000.



ORRR, we could go with the program we thought we'd be going with any ways. The Foster-to-Adopt program, for about $1000. It feels weird to be making our decision so much on money, but we certainly don't have the funds for the multi-thousand dollar options.

Carol gave us a big packet of paperwork to fill out. She'll be helping coordinate the adoption side of this process. But in the meantime, she referred us to Jess who will be working with us on the foster care part of the foster-to-adopt process.

We met with Jess about a week later (so make this late June). She was very helpful in explaining the process we would be going through. Another BIG packet of paper work. This time to become a licensed foster care home. In addition to the paper work, we need to be free of TB, up to date on our 1st aid/ CPR, take 27 hours of training, pass a criminal background check, get fingerprinted, make sure the cats' vaccinations are up to date, figure out how to lock up all the medications in the house (not just out of reach - LOCKED UP), and a small check list of other small things.

Jess explained that once we were licensed (which I anticipate being officially licensed some time in October), a child could be place in our care at about any time. We are looking for a kid who is legally free, or near to it. Being legally free means that the birth parents' rights have been terminated and the child is able to be adopted. Jess is sort of our yenta (can you have a yenta in a Catholic organization?), as she will be our conduit to the state and the children in the state system who are eligible for adoption. Her goal (and ours!) is to find the best match for the given child and our family.

I will say that one of the scariest unknowns in the process is that you just don't know that much about the child before they come into your home. And while there is at least a 6 month period between placement and when the adoption could become finalized, no one really wants to do 'take backs'. Hard for everyone involved. But we have great faith in Jess (have a really good feeling about her). And in someways, it is like having a child join your family at birth. You still don't know what you are going to get until the kid comes out of the womb. It's just that this child will likely be a little bit older. (up to 5 years old, in our case.)

Some of the 'highlights' of our paperwork: yes, I will feed the child; yes, I will dress the child appropriately; no, I will not abuse the child.

Highlights of our 27 hour training? The 673 page book of 'useful' information. The woman who had ridiculous questions/ anecdotes. Yep. That's abou it. I'm pretty sure I've blocked out the rest of the worst of it.

Oh, I really should have done a few smaller blogs along the way on this topic. But this highlights the last couple of months. Feel free to ask questions. No secrets to be had here!

Cars

I hate spending money on car maintenance. And this week all four cars that park in our driveway need oil changes. And two of them need new batteries. Sigh.

Finally, MN

Our purpose for the MN destination was to visit Doug's Aunt Mary. Kate and Mary took to each other very quickly. Here, Kate and Mary are playing cards. And we all had a great time watching the Twins defeat the White Sox.

And Kate loved the monkeys at the Zoo.

It was a great time. (Can you tell I'm tired, and the narrative is getting brief?)

The last leg before MN

We missed Wall Drug, the famed place where you can get free ice water and 5-cent coffee because Kate was taking a much needed nap in the car.

But we did get to see the Mitchell Corn Palace, which was a great combination of kitchy and coolness. It's covered with murals made of corn cobs, and they've been putting new murals up for over 100 years.

The only sad part about this stop is that we weren't able to pick up New Jersey for our license plate game. To make it more challenging, we had two rules. One, we both had to see it. Two, it couldn't be in parking lot. We were visiting too many touristy locations, and I thought that would make things too easy.

On the return trip, we ammended the parking lot rule, in an attempt to get all 50. But we didn't see NJ after Mitchell. There were about 8 other states we didn't get, but it was fun to look.

From WY to SD

These pictures uploaded in reverse order of when we visited them. But I can't seem to move them around. Oh well.

We didn't cover as much distance this day, but we did see A LOT of sites. The most disappointing was the city of Deadwood, SD. This is where Wild Buffalo Bill and Calamity Jane hung around. The only good part was the cemetary, were they (along with other city notables) were burried. It was the only real part of the town. The rest was crass commercialism behind somewhat historic looking storefronts.

Calamity Jane.

Buffalo Bill.

After Deadwood, we took what felt like the slowest road ever to see Mt. Rushmore. I wish we had more time to spend there, but we were nearing the end of the day.

And not that much farther, down another slow road, is the Crazy Horse monument. They are still working on it, but you can see the profile of his face.

Much earlier in the day, we visited Devil's Tower. It was definitely the coolest part of the day. Doug's been wanting to see it since he saw "Close Encounters".

There was a 1.3 mile trail around the base, and it made a nice family walk.

And just outside the park, there was a prairie dog colony. It was soooooo cool to see all those little creatures. This is my best picture of one, just to remind me of how fun it was to watch them. I could have watched them for hours.

On the road, part 2

After leaving CDA, we drove across Montana via I-90 (actually ending inside of Wyoming). And I don't care what anyone says. I think driving across MT is a beatiful road trip. We returned via I-94, and I found both routes just wonderful. Long, but wonderful. Maybe it's the length that people have an issue with. Because I have to tell you, driving across most of SD and ND is okay, but pretty boring after a while, especially in comparison to MT.

Getting back to the first day post-Idaho, toward the end of the day we stopped and the Little Bighorn National Monument. Doug was out here when he was 15, and he remembers it just telling the "white man's" side of the story. Well, in the early 90's the monument added the Native American part of the story. I found it to be a moving monument.

Kate was willing to be held for the briefest of moment, before running to play in the dirt and rocks. She was glad to be out of the car! This is where Custer and his men took their last stand. The markers are where the soldiers fell (the dark one is Custer's).

The iron sculpture was part of the Native American monument.