I heart Dragon Boating

Dragon Boat practice started 2 weeks ago and I am jumping for joy. Oh how I love dragon boating!  This year Joe is doing it with me, which makes it twice as fun.

It was a beautiful day out on the water on Saturday.   The weather was blissful.

 

My nephrologist wants me to only paddle for half of practice until we get some test results back, so that gave me some time to just hang out on the beach until practice was over and it was time to clean the boat.  It was nice to relax on the beach for a little while.

 

Toes in the water.

Bringing the boat in.

Unloading.

Joe made me this flower box for our front porch.  I love the colors.

The sunflowers are my favorite. These are dwarf sunflowers so they won't get too much taller than this.

Cell phone pictures. One day I'll replace my broken camera.

Happy Father's Day Dad!

Happy Father's Day Dad!
Love you!

DeAnn Rocks the Photoshoot(again)

I wanted to have some new pictures taken of us, since the last time we had them taken was November and we both look quite different now. My hair is much shorter but its Joe that hardly looks like the same person. His hair style changed drastically in the last few months and we don’t really have any pictures of him since he started shaving his head. I know not everyone likes this look on Joe but we don’t care. I think it’s sexy and he likes it so it doesn’t really matter what other people think of it.




I asked DeAnn if she would take some shots of us and she kindly agreed. She not only took our pictures but did my hair and makeup as well. She is multi-talented!

 

This is one of my all time favorites

 

Love this one too

 

While DeAnn took a few shots of me, Joe walked ahead to look at the trail(or so he said).  He came back with this bouquet of wildflowers that he had picked for me.  I was so surprised.   

 I'm so happy with my flowers!

I love every single one of these shots. They all turned out great.

Here we are in November.  What a difference 7 months makes.  We look like different people!


If you live in the Orange County, CA area and you want some pictures taken, drop me a line at chinaadopter(at)gmail(dot com) and I will pass your name along to DeAnn. She has been doing this as a hobby for some time but would love to start shooting professionally. She has done families, couples, babies and pets. She also did our Christmas card pictures which you can see here.

Thanks DeAnn for spending your Saturday evening with us and for the fabulous shots. We both appreciate it more than you know.

Thank you for all of the positive thoughts/prayers for Joe last  Thursday.  It was a job interview that he had (which I’m sure you all figured out). Anyway, he didn’t get the job. They interviewed 12 people though, and it came down to him and one other applicant and they had tons more experience for the job he was interviewing for, so I can’t feel too badly. O.K., I *can* but I’m trying not to. I have to believe he’ll find a job some day. I mean he has to eventually. Right?

Therapy

I have been doing a lot of crafting lately.  It is therapy for me.  This is significant because for a good 5 months or so I wasn't able to do anything creative. I had some kind of block or something.  I think it was stress, coupled with the fact that we didn't have any extra money in our budget  to buy any supplies.  We still don't, but  a couple of weeks ago I had the urge to create something so I cleaned out my scrapbook area and found a treasure trove of supplies that were either unused or unfinished.  I started making some things and couldn't stop!  It feels good to be putting my hands to creative use again.  

I started with this mini album. This was in an unopened package that I bought off the clearance rack for five bucks literally years ago.  I love the colors in it.  I added nothing to this but some paper flowers and buttons.  Everything else came in the kit.  Pretty good for five dollars.  Since almost everything I make ends up as a gift, this one went to someone very special to me who has been a lifesaver for us during a difficult time.

My second cousin is getting married this month(I'm not sure how this is possible, because I swear she was a baby only a few years ago :).  I made this card for her and her husband to be.  The leaves in the top right corner were cut from her invitation. I love the colors in this card, and the buttons.  I heart buttons.  Sorry the pic is so blurry.  I am still using a loner camera and can't for the life of me figure out the settings on it.

  

I found this sticker sheet and a couple of pieces of coordinating paper amongst my supplies and immediately knew I wanted to make some cards from it.  The pattern is  so bright and cheery.  I actually made 2 cards using these supplies but the other picture came out too blurry to post.

These three cards were made using the same piece of patterned paper, a green piece of card stock, some ribbon scraps,  and one sheet of embellishments.

I had enough scrap paper left over from the mini scrapbook kit in the above pictures

 to make this card as well.

These message boards are my new obsession.  I love them.  The flowers and letters are magnets. I made one for  Grace's upcoming birthday and it turned out sooooo cute.  I used the Chinese kids rubber stamps that I bought a few months ago. I have gotten so much use out of them.

I have a bunch more things in the works and will most likely post them here since it's the easiest place for me to find them when I want to see past designs.

Awe

In Awe.


That's what I am in regards to a couple of acts of kindness that have occurred to me over the last few days.


I am so fortunate  to be able to list the people on my sidebar under people I have met. Many of them were simply chance meetings of once or twice, but most of them have turned into lasting friendships of which I count myself lucky to have.


The first act of kindness came from one of those people who fall under the latter.   I don't want to give too much information about it, except that so great was its magnitude in how much it  relieved some of the stress we are under and allowed us to breathe again, even if just for a short period of time, but awesome in its kindness.   This gesture left me both speechless and crying in the middle of a restaurant on Saturday night, which is no easy feat (the speechlessness. It actually doesn't take a lot to cause me to burst into tears as of late :).  Thank you Joannah.  Words cannot convey our thanks and gratitude to you.


The other act of kindness has to do with the new look of the blog. You may have noticed that I decided to switch things up a little bit around here.  I have been wanting to change the look of things for quite some time but haven't exactly had any extra money laying around with which to do so.  I was talking with my co-worker DeAnn about it the other day, and she pointed me in the direction of one of her blog friends,  Homesick Cajun.  We got to chatting via e-mail, and she graciously agreed to do a blog makeover for me free of charge!  I gave her a few ideas of what I was looking for, and the colors I liked and this is what she came up with.  Oh my goodness, I am in LOVE.  I love everything about it and it is unbelievable to me that someone I have never even met would extend such a kindness to me.


Thank you Dionne, for the beautiful blog makeover.  I will be forever grateful!  If you are looking to change the look of your blog up a bit, you should drop her an e-mail.  She really does a fabulous job.


(The Chinese Lanterns and Asian theme are gone for now.  I don't know when(or if) we will ever get a referral and I just can't look at them right now.  I need a fresh look that doesn't represent our adoption.  I am not defined by that.  I wanted to change the name of the blog too, but I couldn't bring myself to do it just yet).


Lastly, I know I have asked this from you all a lot over the last 2 years,  but would you mind keeping us(specifically Joe) in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow, say, around 3:30 p.m.?(Pacific Standard Time :)


I would really appreciate it and would be glad to return the favor.  Just leave me a comment letting me know what you need prayers/good thoughts for and they're yours.

Should

I should be:

Excited about Dragon Boat practice starting this morning and Joe attending with me for the first time.

Enjoying the beautiful weather we are having.  (High in the mid-eighties with a slight breeze).

Loving driving down the freeway with all of  the windows down and the radio blaring .

Thinking about all of the things in the post below that I am thankful for.

Instead I am:

Waiting on something that is so long overdue that are lives are unravelling right before our eyes the longer we wait for it.

Wondering if my husband will ever find a job and our lives will have a sense of normalcy again.

Isolating myself from friends and family.

Dreaming of a child I don't believe is ever coming.

Dreading the time I took off from work in a couple of weeks for the camping trip we won't be able  to go on.

Crying myself to sleep over an e-mail I wish I had never sent and the repercussions from it.

All I feel is sadness.

I am going to church with a friend later and dinner afterward.  Maybe that will make me feel better.  

Because this sadness?

It sucks more that I can convey.

And It's  getting old.

Thankful

I am thankful for my job. I am lucky to have a job. If you have a job, no matter how crappy it may be at times, don't take it for granted. Not only am I thankful to have my job, I am thankful they have been so sympathetic of my absences as of late. I have missed quite a bit of work in the last month and they have been nothing but understanding about it.


I am thankful for some clarity regarding some relationships in my life. At the end of the day Joe is the only one I can count on to be there for me, through thick and thin. I am so grateful to have him.

I'm thankful that Dragon Boat practice begins this weekend, and that this year Joe has agreed to join the team with me. I can think of nothing better than participating in something I enjoy so much than having him share it with.

I am thankful it is the weekend. This week has been extremely difficult.

What are you thankful for?