Home improvements

Behold my lovely new cornice! I made it myself!(O.K. my husband helped a little!) I saw the idea a few years ago in a decorating magazine and really liked it. It's a pretty simple straight cornice painted white with glass doorknobs attached. We got the board at Home Depot and I painted it white. The doorknobs came from Walmart. At $5.00 for a set of two, they were a steal. And they're actually glass, not plastic. We added a shelf to the top, because we will never have enough space to store all of the books my husband has(Ever) and that was wasted space up there before. I was planning on hanging a valance of sheer white, tied onto the doorknobs with ribbons like in the pic I saw, but I kind of like how it looks without the valance. Now all I need is the new curtains. I chose the material and I'm having them sewn(I can not sew). I hope to have them by next week. The next thing will be new rugs. I have to cover up our carpets before our homestudy. They are thrashed so badly that I won't even waste the time to have them cleaned. I wish we could rip them out, but I don't think our apartment complex would take kindly to that. I would also love to get new slipcovers for the couches, but I just don't think it's in the budget. Yes, I do realize these minor improvements will in no way affect the social worker's opinion of us as parents. But it will make me feel better. New rugs and slipcovers would make the house look a lot cleaner, as both are very well used right now. The curtains are all for me, because they are pretty, and pretty makes me feel good. The old valance was not pretty. Eewwww. Can't believe I lived with that for three years. There's nothing like a homestudy to get your butt in gear on home improvements! I recommend everyone get one at least every couple of years. You know, just for fun! (Because fun is what we're having getting ready for this thing. Fun with a capital F!)

Hmmm...interesting!

Your Hidden Talent

You're super sensitive and easily able to understand situations. You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts. Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition. The right path is always clear, and you're a bit of a visionary.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Jambasta

Last night I finally got around to making the dish I was supposed to make for our anniversary. It's called "jambasta" because it is a combination of pasta and jambalaya. (Two of my husband's favorite dishes)
It turned out great and was sooooo yummmy! In fact, we're having it again tonight because I made such a huge pot of it! Perfect for a rainy day. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested: Jambasta Recipe. Oh yeah, I found it in one of Rachel Ray's new magazines Every Day With Rachel Ray. There are some great recipes in there. The only mistake I made was not putting the whole amount of hot sauce in that it called for because I was afraid it would be too spicy. It ended up being a little too mild instead, so I suggest using the recommended amount. I may try to spice it up before serving again tonight. I just love when dinner is already made when I get home!

Am I a dork because I am sad that Dancing With The Stars is over? I love that show! Am I an even bigger dork that I was seriously P.O.'d when Stacy and Tony got third place? She was one of the best dancers there! So much better than Jerry Rice! Lisa Rinna was better than him, and she got voted off last week! What's wrong with people? I have to say, I am very happy that Drew and Cheryl won. He is just. so. pretty. O.K., I think I just answered my own question. I am a dork for becoming so emotionally invested in a T.V. show! Time for bed. 5:30 a.m. always comes way too soon on a Monday.

More scrapbook pages

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon when you're sitting at home and bored? If you're me, you make scrapbook pages! Here are some I finished a little while ago. I'm still thinking about setting up another blog only for scrapping, I'm just lazy and haven't gotten around to doing it yet! The first page is of cutie Miss Grace playing in the puddles at Christmas. Since it rained almost the entire time we were up there, I have a ton of these pictures so I figured I better do something with them! The other page is something kind of different for me. If you were to look through my scrapbooks(all thirteen of them), you might be a little hardpressed to find a picture of me! Since I'm the one usually holding the camera, I get a lot of pictures of other people and not too many of myself. This is the first page I think I have done that is dedicated solely to me. I like the way it turned out, although I'm not sure I like that picture. I'm especially proud of the little file folder on the left hand side of the page. If you fold it down, it has a list of some of my favorite things. Too cute! If I do say so myself!:)

This is for my Nieces

Nieces. As in more than one. That sounds weird to say, but so cool! Anyway, I found this mirror while I was out and about with my Dad today. It is going to go great in my niece's new room. I'm planning on spending Easter vacation up in S.F. with my sister, and we are going to redecorate Gracie's room. When Lisa and Scott moved into their new house a few years ago, I helped them do Cameron's room. The theme was "Under the Sea" and I painstakingly hand painted waves all around the room as a border, with clouds on top. Well who knew one of Cameron's first words would be "truck"? So a few months later Cameron moved into a new transportation themed room, and my sister set to work on his old room for Gracie. When she told me she was planning on changing the theme of the room and painting over the waves, I about had a cow! It took me three whole days to paint those waves! So she graciously decided to keep them for the time being, and changed the room slightly from "Under the Sea" to "Mermaids". It looks cute, but with another little girl coming along, it's time to change to something a little more appropriate for two little girls. So Lisa decided on "Princesses". How cute will that be? Think pink. Think boas. Think rhinestones. Think girly! I love doing this kind of stuff, so I'm pretty excited.

It says "Princess Quarters" at the top

Cute Rhinestone trim

A very fruitful day

Today we got so much done towards the adoption. I played hooky from work (well not completely. I did work a couple of hours in the morning). Joe and I both had our physicals this morning, followed by our tax apptointment in the afternoon, and then we headed straight over to get our livescan fingerprinting done. Whew! We just returned home a few minutes ago. It is such a relief to have all of that completed. Now things are really rolling along. The next step will be to call and schedule our homestudy. I hope to have our first home visit by the first or second week in March. Woo Hoo! This is finally starting to feel real. Our documents for CIS will go out on Monday, and then we'll pretty much be waiting for things to happen(Our homestudy appt., our fingerprinting invitation, etc.). A lot of the paperwork is done. I feel like a huge weight has been lifted! Now we are off to wait in line at our favorite Sushi restaurant. Yeah, we're going to eat dinner at 5:00. We will make great senior citizens someday! It's just that the place doesn't open until then, and they don't take reservations and if you DON"T get there right when they open you have to wait like two hours! No thanks! I'd rather dine with the seniors!

Inspired by the scrapbook expo

I was so inspired by everything we did and saw this weekend that I spent all day on my scrapbook today. I finished this page a little while ago. I'm very happy with the way it came out. I really wanted to make a page dedicated to my husband for our anniversary, without using a Valentine's theme. He let me take these pictures of him today(which is rare. He hates pictures of himself). I converted them to Black and White, and distressed the edges with ink. I have never spent so much time on one page, and I am thrilled with the outcome. I may have to start a separate blog just to post my scrapbook pages, so I don't bore all the non-scrappers out there. Oh, by the way, how do you like the new header and look of the blog? I'm pretty happy with it. Hubby spent about two hours fiddling with it to make it look just so, and helped me choose the name. Oh, and you may have guessed we chose the baby's name too! It is actually going to be Sophia, but we'll call her Sophie for short. Joe actually chose the name(of the baby AND the blog). We decided on "Searching for Sophie" because we tried in vain for several years to start a family. Along the way we were met with sadness, heartbreak, but most of all, indecision. Should we continue on the path we were on, with no medical intervention? Should we go ahead with the infertility procedures? How far? It wasn't until we met our niece Gracie that we both realized what we were meant to do. THAT's how we were meant to start our family. As soon as we made that decison, a peace came over us. The fear, and uncertainty and heartbreak melted away. Somewhere in China our daughter will be born. She will wait there until God unites us with her. That's what we were searching for. The right way for us to begin our family. All along we were searching for Sophie!

More scrapping fun

Our second day at the Scrapbook Expo was fabulous. Our classes weren't until later today, but we still got up early in order to beat the crowds. This picture is from today, before the mob of people arrived. Yesterday was a zoo! This is a picture of all the cool stuff I got in the $1.00 bins. These particular products usually go for about $3.00-$5.00 each, so it was quite a deal! We got so many projects done today at the "Make and Take" booths. I now have at least seven layouts that are totally done. All I have to add is pictures. I was going to post them on Flickr, so as not to bore you non-scrappers, but I can't seem to log into my account so I may just have to post them here. Lisa shoud be boarding her plane about now. Her flight was delayed four hours due to snow back East, but they wouldn't let her stray too far from the airport, so we had dinner together and then left her at the airport reading her book. It's been a long day for her, so I hope she gets home without any further glitches. All in all a great weekend!

Scrappin' weekend

Here's some pictures of our weekend so far. We got up bright and early to head on over to the Orange County Fairgrounds for our first class of the day. The theme was "Forever my little girl" and we completed three adorable 12X12 layouts. Pictures to come. Our second class was "Shabby Chic Style", and we completed another beautiful "girl" page. I am well on my way to starting the baby's scrapbook! We only took pictures with Lisa's camera at the Expo, so I can't upload them, but here is a picture of us scrapping after we got home, and some very cute pages Lisa completed for Gracie.

Anniversary pictures

As promised, here are some pictures from our anniversary(Valentine's Day). Those flowers were part of my present. Joe brought them to me at work, making everyone extremely jealous that I have such a wonderful hubby. I also received a relaxation C.D. I wanted, and he wrote me the most beautiful poem that made me cry when I read it. I wanted to post it here, but he says it's private and he doesn't want me to share it with the world. I might post just a few lines, because it is so beautiful and he is truly a talented writer. I'll post pictures from our "scrapper's" weekend later tonight. We're having a blast!

The Best Anniversary Ever

Last night turned out so romantic and fun, I think it was one of the better anniversary celebrations we have had. I opted not to cook(too tired), so Joe picked up some Chinese food for us. He ended up calling in sick too, so he was home early. We had a romantic candlelight dinner, with champagne(2 bottles!) and strawberries dipped in chocolate for dessert. Then we made a makeshift bed on the living room floor and snuggled up to watch the Olympics. Boring, I know, but we truly enjoy watching them. We did some other stuff too, but this is a G rated blog, so we won't go there :) I'll post some pictures tomorrow(Of our dinner and my present, not the other stuff!)

On this day I married my best friend, the one I laugh with, live for, love

This was the verse on our wedding announcement that we sent out thirteen years ago today. It's hard to believe we have been married that long already. After all these years I still feel like the luckiest woman in the world. Happy Anniversary Joe! I Love You!

What are we doing for our anniversary again?

A big topic of discussion in our house the last week or so has been about our plans for our upcoming anniversary. Our thirteenth wedding anniversary is on Tuesday. Yes, that's right, we got married on Valentine's Day. Go ahead, let's hear it: Aawwww...how cute! We used to think it was romantic and cute too(when we were 22 and 23 years old), but now we are older and wiser and it mostly is just a pain in the butt. Flowers are more expensive, it's impossible to get dinner reservations anywhere(unless you think way ahead-which we never do), and it is such a huge commercial day. We aren't into all of the hype surrounding Valentine's Day. We're pretty private, quiet people(Heck, we eloped!), and we like to spend our anniversary in such a way. In years past we did do the obligatory dinner out. We hated dealing with the crowds, so for the last two years we have stayed home and had our dinner brought to us. That was nice, but this year we tossed around the idea of going out again, but couldn't come to an agreement on where we would go or what time, or pretty much anything. So we still have no plans. The whole situation is made more difficult by the fact that my husband forgot to tell his Tues/Thurs night class that they would not be meeting on Tuesday. When I asked him if he had remembered to cancel class he asked "Why do I need to do that?" I'm sorry, but to me, this constitutes him forgetting our anniversary! He told me that he didn't forget the "date' of our anniversary, just the "day of the week that it fell on', which is not the same thing. Uhhh...I'm sorry. To me it is the same thing! So now he has to go to work on Tuesday night, for at least a little while, since he forgot to tell them they wouldn't be meeting. He could call in sick, but whose going to believe anybody who calls in sick on Valentine's Day? He should be home by 6:30 or so, and we could still go out, but I've decided to take matters upon myself. We're going to stay home and watch sappy movies and I'm going to cook. Problem solved. I wanted to cook something that tasted home cooked, but wouldn't take all day to make. So I turned to my Rachel Ray/Thirty Minute Meal cookbooks(love them!). I found this recipe called "Jambasta". It is a combination of pasta and jambalaya, which are two of my husband's favorite dishes. It looks pretty easy to make too. I'll post the recipe after I try it out. For dessert I'll be making chocolate mousse, and we'll be trying out the mini fondue pot with chocolate and strawberries that my mother-in-law got me for Christmas. Yum! My stomach is growling just thinking about it! Well, I'm off to the store to buy the stuff I'll need.

A Much Better Day

Today was much, much better than yesterday! The kids were good, I started my period, and it's Friday for goodness sakes! That alone makes it a better day than yesterday. Mu husband brought me dinner, and I am now in a chocolate induced semi-coma from the gift basket my sister sent me for Valentine's Day/our anniversary. Yummy! I'm off to take a nice relaxing shower and to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics(we taped it on our DVR-no commercials. Yay!) Let the weekend begin!

A horrible rotten day

Not the best day ever that I just had. I am still fighting this cold. I'm on day eight and NOW it has decided to go to my head, after spending the last seven days in my chest. I wish it would make up its mind. Actually, I wish it would simply go away. I am bloated and have cramps, anxiously awaiting the arrival of my period. I must have slept wrong last night, as there is a crick in my neck and I can't turn my head to the left at all. How is it that we can injure ourselves while sleeping?
Work was stressful. And exhausting. The kids are all wound up from the fires, and the winds, and probably Valentine's Day, and maybe it's a full moon too. There is always some excuse as to why they are all hyped up. I seem to have lost some of my authority too, which is not good. I usually have no problem getting the kids to listen to me. Most of the time I have their respect. For some reason, in the last week or two I noticed I have been getting a lot more back talk. I have to repeat something two or three times before I get a response. I have no idea why, but it is annoying. That means I have to do twice as much talking, explaining, and consequences to get them back to where they should be. It wears me out. Today I ended up staying late at work because Joe wanted me to meet him before his night class. I waited at work for an hour, then in the parking lot at the bookstore for a half hour. He got stuck in traffic and was able to meet me just in time to say hello and goodbye before he had to get to his class. Not exactly worth an hour and a half wait. Because I left for home so late, I got stuck in traffic too, and it took me almost an hour to get home. Yuck. I have a monster headache. I think I will feel much better after a hot shower and I am in my sweat pants. Tomorrow is another day. One that is sure to be better than this one!

My house is a disaster

I'm not exaggerating. It's a total disaster. I won't even post pictures of it because I'm too embarrassed of the way it looks. I don't think it has looked this way since...Wait. I don't think it has EVER looked like this before! You know how when you are cleaning out a closet or a cupboard and you have to take everything out so you can organize it and put it back in neatly? Well, imagine doing that with a whole room! And imagine if the contents of that room were spread from one end of your 1000 square foot apartment to the other! Now imagine that your husband is the biggest pack-rat ever, and that means three times as much junk spread all over your living room! I'm having serious anxiety about it. Luckily he came home on his lunch break and threw some things out and put some things away. We have made a TON of progress on the baby's room though. He worked very hard all day Saturday, and when I came home he said he had a surprise for me. Now I was thinking to myself "Awesome! He must have gotten the entire room cleaned out while I was gone." Ha! Wishful thinking. The surprise was pretty sweet though. When I opened the door to the bedroom(he made me close my eyes), I saw this. Yes, he took about twenty million of his books(he's an English teacher, remember?) off of this shelf and put all the baby's stuff on it. I hadn't realized we had acquired so much baby paraphernalia until I saw it all in one place! More photos Here. And Here. Pretty cute huh? It was his way of saying that he WILL get this done, and this room will be ready for a baby soon! He was very reassuring, and it's a good thing because the rest of the room still looks like this!. Yikes! How is it possible that one individual accumulates so much junk stuff? Oh well, I'd rather focus on the baby stuff. We have baby stuff in our house! And it's going to be for our baby! Someday :) Yippeee! Somebody pinch me!

The cold that's kicking my butt

Today I feel more sick than any of the last four days. And I thought the worst was over! What I thought was a head cold has completey skipped my sinuses and promptly settled into my chest where it seems hell bent on staying for awhile. I haven't had a chest cold like this in I don't know when. I still cant tell if it's just a cold or the flu, as I spent most of last night between chills and cold sweats. My chest is so tight it hurts to cough and there is a wheezing/rattling when I try to take a deep breath.
There is also metallic taste in the back of my throat. A hot shower seems to be the only way to loosen up the phlegm, so I've tried that three times already. I may have to send Joe to the store for a decongestant. I'm bummed because we're missing a pretty cool Super Bowl party too. Oh well. At least now Joe can watch the game in peace. He was concerned there were going to be a bunch of kids running around during the party and he wouldn't be able to concentrate on the game. He would have been right, but it's still fun to watch with other people, especially if you aren't that interested in the game(which I am not). I am hoping I feel better by tomorrow, because I can't miss any more work right now. Well, gotta go. The game's on!

Something strange is going on in blogland

I haven't been able to get onto my blog for the last four hours or so, and now when I finally did, my last post disappeared! How does that happen? Like, where did it GO? This has never happened to me before and it's quite annoying so I hope it doesn't happen again. I've just finished watching "Supersize Me". Now I feel depressed about my weight and lack of physical activity, and I swear I'm never eating fast food again!(yeah, right) Joe and I have made a pact to either join a gym or buy a bunch of tapes so we can exercise at home. I need to find something I can do on my own, since he's gone three nights a week. It' s hard to play tennis by yourself!

I haven't posted for a couple of days because I wasn't feeling up to it. I was in a lot of pain on most of Tuesday and all of yesterday. I feel fine today. I don't get it. There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to my painful days versus my pain free ones. I do have to say that the pain meds the doc gave me at my last appt. are really working. Yay for that! The only problem is, one of them makes me quite drowsy. I almost fell asleep while sitting on a bench outside while the kids were playing. When we came inside, I actually had to lie down on the couch for a few minutes because I couldn't keep my eyes open! I was sent home early and came home and took a two hour nap. I don't know which is better-having pain and being able to stay awake, or being pain free and falling asleep on the job! For now I choose pain free, because the pain is really awful. I'm having a hard time at work already. Ever since my surgery I have been in the middle of a "discussion" that turned into a disagreement, that took an ugly turn today. It is a long, drawn out story that I'm sure I will write about eventually, but really am not in the mood to do right now. It involves how much time I took off, and my sick pay, and state disability(which they MADE me take). The accounting person all but accused me this morning of trying to rip off both the school AND the state disability program. I'm sorry, but thems' fightin' words! I about came unglued. I am one of the most honest people there and I do not appreciate being called both a liar and a thief. Luckily my husband stepped in a took over(calm, collected person that he is), and I don't have to worry about it(for now). I still don't see this ending peacefully, as now there is a huge rift between myself and the accounting person. Yes, I have now pissed off the person that cuts my paychecks. Grrreeeaatttt....
I really need to learn to just keep my mouth shut!