The Magic of an Ordinary Day

sunflowers

Just a pretty picture today. 

first day of school

She was so excited!

We had set her new Dora the Explorer alarm clock for 7:30 but she crawled into my bed to snuggle at 7:00.  Then she had to bring her new backpack (which is as big as she is, really) with Woobie tucked away in there.  We didn't have to bring Woobie out, thank goodness.  He stayed in the backpack, hung up on a peg outside the room.

We love the school, a small Lutheran School about a mile down the road.  13 students.  Strict about manners (and I saw one of the teachers lay down the law with two boys that had taken the play drills and turned them into guns...no guns/pointing things like guns/pretending to shoot other children allowed, which I really really love).  They have an optional afternoon program if we needed the afternoon to run around or work (or in our case, sleep). The whole set up seemed to be incredibly fun and rich in learning opportunities, which is just awesome!!

Hannah was a bit shy at first, not wanting to sit on the rug with the other kids and sing the morning prayer, and stayed really close to us for about 15 minutes.  Then she was off playing with the toys and the other students.  Thursday, when I leave her there by herself, might be another matter but the plan is to just peel her off my leg and go.  The teacher says that sometimes the whole room is crying!  But that's just a part of learning and adjusting and Hannah is emotionally mature enough to handle it. 

I'm so glad we have her in preschool.  I'm so glad she will have more of a chance to spend time with children her own age.  And, selfishly, I'm glad to have six hours a week to myself. 

progress!

We have now officially collected all the documents we need for our Vietnam dossier!!! 

I am so excited to have this almost done.  There is a bunch of things to notarize, then we must send everything to the Secretary of State for certification (to certify that our notary really is a notary) then it goes to the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington DC for authentication (to authenticate that our Secretary of State really is our Secretary of State).  Did you get all that?  Actually, it's MUCH easier this time around.  A less involved dossier also means less cost.  Because of course it costs you anywhere from $3 to $50 per document to get this done.  $70 per document for expedited service, please. 

The last bit of business for our Homestudy is coming up, too.  Our home visit is on Friday.  I'm not as nervous this time around as I was last time.  Last time we had a home visit I alphabetized my spice rack.  And if you've seen my spice rack, you'd know it is no easy job.  Our social worker, Nikki, is nice and doesn't do a white glove test, just makes sure you have enough room for the child, working smoke alarms and CO2 detectors, toxic chemicals are out of reach, firearms locked up, fire extinguishers in appropriate places, safe yard, safe pets, etc.  (Speaking of safe pets, we are taking all three dogs to get their shots at the same time next week.  That should be fun.)  Nikki's pregnant and due in two weeks so I figure she'll want to bust out our report as soon as she gets home on Friday. 

I also decided that this would be a good time to do some painting, since we are having Dwayne's 40th birthday party on Saturday.  (I still have some tricks up my sleeve for that one, too!!)  So I painted the hallway a color called "aged parchment" that looks either a soft green or yellow depending on the light.  Nice paint job, it really lightened up the hallway especially with the--count them--five five paneled doors I painted in the trim color.  It took me almost the whole weekend to do the painting, mostly because I was trying to watch Hannah at the same time.  Well, to be honest, PBS spent a fair amount of time watching Hannah, too. 

I also shampooed the carpets on Friday.  I was hoping to make the current carpets look good.  Have I ranted about these carpets yet?  White carpeting in a house with six children who apparently like cherry Kool Aid and ink?  One phrase describes my success with the carpets: you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear.  So true, so true.

So we have got a huge shopping trip ahead of us---food for the party, margarita mix, etc. and a bunch of cleaning left to do.  I'll be pretty tied up for the next few days, but hope to have some party pictures soon!

Here's a photo of that green/yellow hallway of ours.  It was this horrible industrial shiny beige  with dark wood trim before.  Yuck.

I'm just puttering a bit before I go into work today.  I am loving the PACU---love the crew, love seeing new things, love that I can get our of that horrid Blake's Lottaburger uniform and wear scrubs.  Man, I hate those things.

I have some scrappy things going on today, then I'm out of here.

lazy blogger

...good thing I have a cute kid.  So I can just throw up a photo on the lazy days.

I've been busy working on our adoption dossier.  I sent for immigration authorization for a foreign born orphan on Tuesday--to the tune of $830--the fees have gone wayyyyy up since the Department of Homeland Security took over.   God knows we must be protected from the foreign born orphans  <<<eye roll>>>  What a freaking scam.

Other than that, we have plans to paint the hallway, steam clean our carpets and plan for Dwayne's 40th birthday party.  Oh, and Hannah starts preschool in two weeks. 

We're going to the library then grocery shopping...gotta get crackin'!

time for some photos

Here's my little Hannah Banana.  I call this "say NO to crack"

and here's her from the other side...

and finally, an important package came in the mail for us today...

Happy Monday, y'all!!!

10 things

I was working on a scrapbooking challenge to make a layout listing "10 things" about yourself.  I came up with this...

10 things I learned from Dick

1. Never try and talk your way out of a ticket.  Just be polite and call the officer "sir."
2. Family isn't defined by biology.
3. You can find true love later in life.
4. You can laugh at the same jokes over and over again.
5. Veteran's day isn't just a day that the banks are closed.
6. A dysfunctional family is no excuse for being a failure.  Get on with things and lead your own life.
7. Frank Sinatra never goes out of style.
8. You don't have to know someone to talk to them.
9. Never stop helping people.  It makes you feel good.
10. Smurfs + bowling balls = hilarious!

Here's to you, Captain!!

"I'm a nurse, can I help?"

I've been a nurse for 13 years and haven't used that phrase much, but I used it yesterday morning.

As I was driving home from work the traffic ahead of me suddenly slowed and cars started to quickly veer off to the off-ramp ahead of me.  As I slowed down I noticed a semi truck, a few cars but no emergency vehicles.  I quickly found a place to park my car and ran up to the scene. 

There was a man laying on the interstate.  One man was holding his head straight to control his cervical spine (turns out he was a volunteer firefighter).  Another man was opening a first aid kit.  I was the third person there.  911 had just been called.

The man was lying on the side of the road.  Apparently he had stopped his rig, and fell as he tried to get out.  The man was disoriented and didn't remember why he stopped his rig.  I believe he had head injuries...his pupils were pinpoint, he was disoriented and sleepy and he had some pretty ugly facial trauma.  His nose was sliced open, his mouth was bloody and he had some teeth missing.  He complained of left leg pain.

The man with the first aid kit handed me a pair of gloves and I did a quick assessment, as best I could with no equipment.  He had a patent airway, was breathing normally, had pulses and decent breath sounds.  The pulse to his left leg was diminished.  I was most concerned about a head injury, and got as much information out of him while he was still conscious (name, where was his personal info, where was he from, what he remembered happening, who should we call, etc).  His facial laceration was bleeding heavily and I held gauze to his face to keep it from running into his eyes. 

I knelt by his side for what seemed an eternity, holding his hand while I held a dressing to his face with the other hand, talking to him and telling him he would be alright.

The paramedics came.  I helped them get him on a backboard.  They cut off his clothes.  The police officer got his wallet out of the rig and found his wife's phone number.  More police vehicles arrived to control traffic.

The two other men and I watched the paramedics cut off his clothes and prepare him for transport.  We looked at each other awkwardly.  I shook one man's hand, and the other one kissed me on the cheek.  As I walked back to my car I noticed that the truckers blood was all over my scrubs, and I had some blood on my arms.  I cleaned up as best I could with some alcohol wipes I had in my car. 

As I drove home I started to get a tight feeling in the pit of my stomach, thinking of Clifford from Pennsylvania, lying on an interstate highway in Albuquerque, not knowing anyone, his wife thousands of miles away.  By the time I got home, had my clothes in the washer and was in the shower, I was shaking.  When Dwayne asked me what happened I started to cry.  I was totally surprised by my reaction.

I hope he does okay.  I hope that in the chaos and uncertainty that will be his life for the next few weeks, he remembers a kindly woman who held his hand as he lay on the road. 

let's talk about food

I love food.  Talking about it, cooking it, eating it, watching food shows on TV.   I'm addicted to Top Chef.  And I tend to go through stages of what I like to cook and eat, and here's what we've been eating this summer:

• bok choy, grilled.  I put a little toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds and salt.  Or olive oil and salt.
• waffles for dinner.  It sounds weird, but Dwayne really loves it.  I start with Alton Brown's waffle recipe and add crumbled crisp bacon, cheese and a little cooked corn.  Cook and serve with eggs on top and covered with cheese and chile (I've done green and red, but we prefer red with this).  I love making savory waffles instead of sweet. 
• kebabs. I made Greek lamb kebabs for a dinner party last week and they were delicious.  I also use pork or shrimp.  I'm not a huge meat eater, and when I look at a chunk of meat on my plate it just seems so unappetizing.  Somehow the cut up marinated chunks of meat with lots of veggies on the skewer seem so fun.  And they are quick and delicious. 
• Israeli couscous. I like regular couscous but sometimes it can get sticky and gloppy at the bottom of the pan.  The Israeli couscous is larger, firmer with a wonderful texture.  I got a mix at Trader Joe's that I cooked up with vegetable stock and then seasoned it to taste.   It only takes 10 minutes.  Try it if you haven't...you'll love it.
• The aforementioned honey chipotle grilled corn.  Absolutely heavenly. 
• Cookies and cream cheesecake.  I haven't made this yet, and haven't found a recipe that doesn't have *shudder* gelatin in it, so I am going to do a trial run this weekend so I can have a perfected recipe for Dwayne's birthday party.  It shouldn't be too hard, and hopefully cheesecakes do better than regular cakes at our 6800 feet of elevation. 

Bon Appetit, everyone!!

Part 1: done!

Today we mailed the thick "application" packet to Pearl S. Buck.  It is quite an involved application which includes medical clearances for all of us, financial statements, tax records, police clearances, certified copies of marriage license, divorce decrees, birth certificate, signed and notarized agreements regarding fee schedules, discipline, risks of adopting internationally and finally a 10-page autobiography each of us had to do.  I think there's more stuff in there, but I can't remember right now.  Whew!!!

Thankfully, the dossier is actually quite brief compared to the application.  Things are different than the China adoption.

Hannah is excited, too.  She keeps asking when we are going to get "Copper."  I just have this gut feeling that we are going to pick out this beautiful name for our son---Sean Richard Bean---and will end up calling him Copper for the rest of his life.  Hmmm....Copper Bean.  I've got to think about that.  It can't be any worse than Cooney ;)

happy family photo

As one of the last things for our Vietnam Adoption application, we need to send in photos.  I call this our happy family photo...