Just Stroll-ing Along . . .

brian & i had fun over the weekend picking out new things for our home. we bought a new rug for the living room, a fan & a light fixture for the kitchen, new faucet fixtures for the tub and a few other things. it is always a joy to get something new for the home; to make things a bit cosier & homier. i'm very much into colors & textures & it's so nice that brian is happy to let me do whatever i want.
our homestudy is 10 days from now & i'm feeling pressure to have everything ready for our caseworker's first visit. it doesn't need to be, but i really want to show her that the bedrooms we have are for these children we want to call ours ... not just a place to spend the night. we're likely taking a trip to ikea this weekend to get bedding & other comfies for the rooms to make them more child-friendly. we are still searching for 2 twin mattresses & box springs. we'd rather buy gently-worn, so if anybody knows of anything, give us a call. we have 1 twin bed already & 1 full bed, but we're getting rid of the full bed since only 1 child per bed is allowed anyway. it'll be nicer to have more space in the bedroom with 2 twin beds. anyway, i spent some time on the weekend getting ready to paint an amoire we have, but i can't decide what color. i'm really into soft greys right now, but i need to start thinking out of the box & on what is more child-friendly. suggestions are welcome!
brian & i talked over the weekend about our kitchen. i love the size (16x11), love the windows (old & paned), but hate the cupboards (gross wood we painted over), countertop & flooring. who in their right mind puts ceramic tile on a kitchen floor. it's a disaster. we talked about replacing the floor - it is the bain of my existence. the more we talked, the more excited we got & now we're thinking of foregoing christmas and remodeling the entire kitchen. we had already picked out most everything from ikea several months ago so it would only be a matter of ordering & figuring out when the best time to demo & install would be. that will be the problem, finding a time, since the next two months are going to be incredibly busy for us, what with him working 65+ hours a week & me being incredibly lonely without him. anyway, i'm excited about the possibility of plate racks & roll out racks & butcher block countertops.
this week i'm working on clearing out closets & organizing the basement & anything else i can think of.

yeah, so of course THAT worked.

i am so mad at blogger right now.

i've tried to come up with a clever little way of saying "happy birthday" to my dad - like he would - but i can't. so putting it simply ...


happy birthday, dad :o)

we've finally been assigned a caseworker! we received a letter from her & should be getting a call today or tomorrow to talk about starting our homestudy. yay!


Edited:

I've just heard from our caseworker. Our first visit is scheduled for November 9, so we have just under 2 weeks to get ready! I've talked with Brian & we are both so excited. She informed me that the 12 yr old girl we initially asked about IS still available for adoption, and also the sibling group of five - however she told me that she's fairly positive that they will be adopting the (2) girls separately & so we're still very interested in them as well. But anyways, thought I'd update on this & ask for continued prayer as we move forward!

my notary exam is at 3 today.


eek.

Edited:

100%!!!

happy birthday to my sweet, sweet mother-in-law, sandy :o)
xoxoxo

My last two posts have been lost into the abyss on my computer. Who knows where they have gone. I just hope this one works!

"When what's left of you gets around to what's left to be gotten, what's left to be gotten won't be worth getting, whatever it is you've got left."

Friday I was offered a job -- and I accepted. After seconds thoughts, I thought about it the whole weekend, talked with Brian and decided that it wasn't for me. At first glance it seems like financially we'd be better off, but taking into consideration pet care, a dirty house, more stress & me already being a ticking time-bomb, I feel like I made the right choice. We've talked about things I want to do before we have children, while I have more time for myself & now Brian will be gone most nights, it's time I should use doing the things I've wished to do - for learning & being creative. I never have a problem finding things to do - but this time I don't have time constraints. I'm not obligated to anyone but myself on when or how things are done, because I am doing them for me. I am making a few plans & some lists and I've bought a journal to write again, to be my companion on these nights where I am experiencing color & beauty & learning. I write my lists so I will not forget, but I don't want to become so overwhelmed with what I want that I don't do any of it --- that inevitably happens to me.
I will write more on this later ... Blogger is acting up on me and I don't want to lose my post again.

we've switched our date night from tomorrow (sweetest day/game 1 of world series) to tonight.

i LOVE date nights. i like going out, holding hands and just being. it's such a lovely thing. we made reservations at one of our favorite restaurants - bravo cucina italiana - and we might go see the prestige afterwards - or maybe just walk around & people watch. i wish we weren't boycotting the museum, because it'd be so nice to go & walk around & see some lovely paintings.


(if you click on the movie link, you'll see that it notes the movie has some "disturbing images" ... i read that and looked back up at the cast and said, "oh yeeah - david bowie. okay.")

Brian had two interviews at Meijer this week for a part-time 2nd shift position, and he came home after the second interview with not only the job, but a smile on his face. A smile even knowing that he's going to have to work not only Thanksgiving, but Christmas too and through all of our happy little weekends. But that's my husband - he knows where we need to be financially and it doesn't matter to him that he already works 40-50 hours a week; he's going to keep on goin'. Frank Lloyd Wright said it best - "I know the price of success - dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen."
I, too, applied at Meijer - my first interview is tonight at 5, right after I leave the office. If I get a position, I'm holding out hope that we would at least get a few of the same shifts, since our availability is the same. That'd be nice. I honestly do NOT want to work there. I don't know if it's because all of my siblings at one time or another all worked at Meijer and I'd like to break the cycle. Um, yeah, more likely it's that I just don't want to work two jobs again. I hate working two jobs at once. I think a small part of it is that I feel like I should definitely be making enough in my office job that I shouldn't have to get a part-time gig - I know Brian feels that way too.
But also I think I just really don't want to work at Meijer. I'm going with Lena Horne on this one - "Always be smarter than the people who hire you." Yeah, I'm thinkin' that won't be too much of a problem.

"It don't blow no cold air at me."

I think menu planning is not a strength of mine. Okay, maybe planning is, just not sticking to it. Hopefully by posting my menus here (and on my fridge) will help me stick to them. And maybe some of you have some favorite dishes that you'd like to share!
This is my meal plan for the next week.

Wednesday:
Baked chicken with cranberry/walnut salad

Thursday:
Crunchy pork chops with garlicky spinach & tomato salad

Friday:
BBQ chicken burgers with slaw

Saturday:
Dinner out!

Sunday:
Tortellini "lasagna" OR apricot pork with tossed salad

Monday:
Creamy cheddar soup with homemade croutons

Tuesday:
Sausage chili with cornbread

we had a wonderful weekend with mindy & brandon - we were sad to leave them, but we had to get back to the dogs & work. we went to king of prussia, longwood, lunched with the vendsels, sat around and ate and ate ... and ate.

world series here we come!!!

we're leaving this afternoon. be back on tuesday!

I found this at a local used children's clothing/item store last night. I am so excited about it! It's in almost perfect condition ... for $1!

i think i am going to start jotting down post ideas as they come to me, instead of sitting in front of the computer & trying to think of something to say. i don't want my blog to be full of randomness, and maybe this comes from my newly-found desire to have some order in my life. i need order in my life. i'm a kind of flibbertigibbet most of the time & while it is nice being spur-of-the-moment, i think i at least need some semblence of order. most of this comes from how i am freaking out that Lord-have-mercy did we really say we'd consider adopting a family of 5 siblings? and how are we going to accomplish having both a whimsical & responsible home.

but i digress.

what i really want is to be able to share with my public - you know who the five of you are - about our lives & why we live & love like we do. i am trying to get away from the materialistically-inclined part of myself & start living deliberately & for a specific reason ... as in, not just going to work everyday and coming home and cleaning the house and cooking supper. working 40 hrs a week and trying to figure out how i'm going to be a mother ... i don't want this outlet to be about how i hate my job & how many poopy diapers johnny had. yeah, those are facts of life, but i don't want that to become what my blog is about.

so what i want to do is become more realistic in my goals, and living my life day to day, knowing
God has a plan for our lives. hopefully what i'll learn i'll be able to share with all of you.

kd -- your late, late present is being mailed today! oh i hope you love it!

mindy -- find a salon near you that you haven't been to yet -- we're getting manis this weekend -- on me.

lynda treated me to delicious chinese food today for lunch -- yummm!

there's a squirrel & a chipmunk running around outside my open office door. i hear their tiny feet crunching the leaves and scattering them. mr. squirrel scurries up the tree with his cheeks puffed & mr. chipmunk stares up at him as if to say, "hey -! where do you think you're going!"

too cute.


the past few weeks have been a blur for us ---- our last official class was saturday & we received our certificates of completion! so now we wait for a caseworker to be assigned to us and then we start with our homestudy -- which is basically 4 to 5 visits at 2-3 hours each. um, that seems like a lot, doesn't it? well there are a lot of things to talk about, a family album to be assembled, smoke alarms to be bought, a furnace to be inspected. other things we need: a few bunk beds, a crib, books & brightly colored toys, a dresser, glow-in-the-dark stars, just to name a few. i think it's going to be so much fun putting rooms together! we talked about doing it after the child(ren) are actually in our home, to make them apart of it, but LCCS recommends we have everything set up & ready to go. so we can just do beds/bedding and let them make their own artwork & things.

we are getting ready to go to philly for a long weekend. we're headed out on thursday afternoon and we won't be back until a week from tonight. we're hoping to relax, play, shop and meet the Vendsels.

it is almost time for me to leave work & i still have a bunch to do.... have a great monday, lovelies!

there are so many horrifying news stories... i don't even know what to say.