The Magic of an Ordinary Day

We're back

I'll give you the abbreviated version.

We went to Tucson on Friday.  It snowed like hell on the way out of town but about an hour and a half later it stopped.  Then it turned into pouring rain for awhile.  Then it was all fine.

Saturday we had our belated Thanksgiving dinner at the in-laws. 

Sunday we drove to Las Vegas.  We had a brief drive-by at the Ikea in Tempe which was great.  Gotta come back with the truck.  One rest stop later I discovered that I left my camera in Tucson.  I cursed a lot when Hannah wasn't around.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we spent in Vegas. I found my little point and shoot camera in my purse.  We stayed at the Luxor.

We visited Dwayne's Aunt and Uncle and I learned how to play roulette.

Wednesday we headed back towards home.  There was hours and hours of this...

An hour out of Kingman we realized we had left Woobie at the rest stop/travel plaza.  We called when we got to Flagstaff but no Woobie despite efforts of the very nice employee at the travel plaza. 

We did see a very night sunset on our way  to Flagstaff, though...

We stayed in Flagstaff on Wednesday night.  I think we all cried a little bit about Woobie.  Here they are in happier times (as in, that morning).

We got home on Thursday and did a frantic internet/ebay search for another Woobie.  I think I found one that looks the same, just has different clothes.  Hannah had a hard time going to sleep without him last night and cried a lot. 

Today I got our dossier ready to go to the Vietnamese Consulate in San Francisco and Fedexed it to our courier.  Despite the fact that my I 171 H form (yes, the one I've been waiting two months for) has a typo on it and spelled my name "Doona" instead of "Donna."  Effin INS.  I'm waiting to see if it will fly or if I will have to send a corrected copy later.  I seriously hate those people.  So cross your fingers that it will be okay.

our Thanksgiving day

We are officially celebrating Thanksgiving on Saturday in Tucson with Dwayne's parents.  Then it's on to Vegas, baby.  Man, we need it, too.

We did celebrate the Packers beating the Lions to make them 10-1!!!!!

I did a little cooking today...some of my oft-requested Macaroni and Cheese for the Thanksgiving potluck for Dwayne at work tonight.  Some apple bread.  And I had the cutest little helper you ever saw.

Here she is watching/stirring the milk for the white sauce.

She then became the official taster of the Mac n Cheese before I put it in the oven.

She works that apple peeler all by herself!  Yeah, that's why the photo is so blurry, it's the lightning speed at which she operates that thing.

Oh, yeah...she's the apple taster, too.

We are headed out of town tomorrow after Dwayne takes a nap and we get some documents notarized and sent to Santa Fe.  Of course, we haven't had a speck of precipitation in what seems like months and it's snowing outside right now.   That's okay, nothing is going to ruin my mood -- I am so looking forward to getting out of town!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

overwhelmed

I am just so overwhelmed today by all the paperwork, notarization, couriers, creating fedex accounts, checks, money orders, Embassies, phone calls, emails...  I had a major breakdown today and just cried about all this shit we have to go through.

Well, it was actually two breakdowns.  But in my defense, it was two separate issues several hours apart.  And I woke up with a migraine, which never helps me be centered and efficient.  Or emotionally stable.

I think I got all my phone calls and emails done today, and tomorrow I'll finish typing up the affidavits and cover letters I need.  And write a few more checks. 

But I'm going to hang it up for the day.  And maybe start drinking.

my sissified cowboy breakfast

I was up at 7 a.m. and despite getting to bed after 1 a.m. jumped out of bed without using the snooze alarm once!  I had to get Hannah ready for preschool so since I was up and energetic I thought I'd cook breakfast for my man.  So very domestic, don't you think?

So I started with a pot of red chile.  'Cuz that's what cowboys eat in New Mexico.  And I need to make a batch of red chile to take to Tucson for Thanksgiving (after eating red chile on my turkey I'm hooked).  So I started well, using bacon fat instead of shortening or oil but then used -- gasp! -- a mix of chimayo and mild chile.  What can I say, my husband is a gringo. 

So here's my chile,simmering away on the stove.  And don't adjust your monitors it really is this red.

While Dwayne took Hannah to preschool I cooked some bacon and toasted some English Muffins.  And they have to be Bays English muffins.  They are the best, with nice large holes to soak up any sauce.  Yum.

So put the English muffins on a plate (I have these cool plates that I stole from an ex-boyfriend who was a chef who had in turn stole them from work to prepare me some sort of baked shrimp dish.  They are perfect for this).  Put bacon, two eggs, shredded cheese together and top with the red chile.  Just a little chile for my cowboy.  It looks yummy,no?

So why is it sissified?  Well, I know a real cowboy, raised on a ranch in the Gila Wilderness here in New Mexico.  Even though he is a perfectly civilized city dweller, veterinarian and soccer dad, his cowboy instincts are still strong, especially when it comes to food.  And I know what Don would say.

Although I get points for making my own red chile, but...mild chile?  Please.  It also is not accompanied by a huge pile of potatoes and/or beans.  And the English muffing, frankly, is suspect.  A tortilla would have sufficed.  No need for anything, you know, fancy.

And by the way it is spelled chile.  Make no mistake about that.

Random Monday

Just some randomness for this Monday:

• I'm trying to coordinate couriers for the Vietnam Embassy to Authenticate my documents.  I have one document, however, that needs to be state certified in Pennsylvania then sent to the Embassy, so I'll have to use separate couriers. 
• We're leaving Friday for Tucson, then Las Vegas.  So I'll be packing, cleaning the house and all the assorted planning that goes with being gone for a week.
• I think Hannah is having another growth spurt.  We were up at 3 a.m. last night while she had a midnight snack that was as big as a regular meal.  She kept saying she was hungry.  The night before she was up at 3 a.m. too.  Sure enough, I checked her height this morning and she has grown one inch since I last checked her in September. 
• I uploaded my November projects on my scrapping blog.  I ended up with some really pretty photos of Hannah last month. 
• I am feeling so much more energetic now that I have shook that pneumonia crap.  I am cleaning the house and even spot-cleaned the living room carpet this morning.  Which leads to...
• We are definitely re instituting the "no shoes in the house" rule.  Living in the country where there is plenty of red clay combined with a child and an indoor dog + new light-colored carpet = panic when I pulled back the couch to clean in front of it.
• We are having waffles for dinner tonight.  Dwayne loves them with bacon in the waffle, then topped with an egg, shredded cheese and red chile.  Hannah prefers chocolate chip.  I'm usually a corn, cheese, green chile and bacon girl.  Mmmmm.
• Did I mention I've given up soda?  And wonder of wonders, am having a lot less migraines. 
• I made a grilled pork loin with mango salsa for dinner on Saturday night.  We are trying to put Hannah to bed a little early on Saturday nights, and then have an "adult" dinner.  I snickered every time I thought "mango salsa" thinking of my brother Al and his daughter Elizabeth.  For just silliness reasons.
• I am just hoping that all the issues in Vietnam get straightened out and we get to adopt another child.  Because if this falls through, we are really going to have to rethink whether or not we are meant to have another child.  I'm not getting any younger, ya know?
• I need to get Hannah a flu shot,  and make pumpkin-pecan cheesecake to bring to Tucson with us before we leave. 

great news!

Katherine called from Adoptions Plus (our homestudy agency).  The USCIS has approved our immigration application.  This is the last piece of paperwork we need to complete our Dossier to Vietnam!!!  I am so thrilled!!

So it looks like I'm going to Santa Fe this week for state certification and then hopefully things will be in the works at the Vietnam Embassy while we are on vacation. 

Woooohoooo!!!

Doctors and Doggy Doctors

Jake and I both had check-ups this week.

On Monday, Jake went for his sedation exam and ex ray appointment.  The good news is that he doesn't have a tear in his ACL, which means no surgery.  The bad news is that he has severe arthritis in both hips.  The vet used the words "horrible" and "I don't know which hip is worse."  So after talking with Don we decided to add some pain killers (as needed) to his Deremaxx he is taking. 

As Don explains it, two things will make a chronic condition like arthritis deteriorate more: extra weight and immobility.  So we could not add the pain meds and keep him quiet, in which case he would probably get chunkier and his muscles would atrophy.  Or we could give him the pain meds, get him at a higher level of functioning so he can go around the block 2 or 3 times a day, keep the mobility of his joints, not lose muscle and perhaps drop a few pounds.  Jake isn't that chubby, but he could stand to lose 3-5 pounds (he's currently 78 pounds).

So we're going to try the pain meds and see how he does.  They're narcotics and might make him a little goofy at first but I hope it improves his overall quality of life.

I went to the Doctor (well, actually our Physician's assistant Brad) on Tuesday after three weeks of the cold that wouldn't go away, which (I thought) was making my asthma worse and making it hard to breathe. Nope, turns out I have atypical (also known as "walking") pneumonia, which is actually a mild version of pneumonia.  So he gave me some antibiotics and adjusted my inhaler to a higher dose, and will give me some oral prednisone if it's not better in 5 days. 

So much for diagnosing myself.  I thought it was just an exacerbation of my asthma that was causing all the coughing. I am kind of stubborn about actually going to Brad, and I hate to be the person who is always talking about their health problems.  But, of course, he can see things more clearly than me and I totally trust his judgment. 

I just want to feel better so we can take our trip over Thanksgiving and have fun.  I need to have fun for awhile.

Adoption woes

The US Embassy in Vietnam has issued this statement. Apparently, the irregularities in the Phu Tho and Thai Nguyen provinces cause the officials to issue a Notice of Intent to Deny (NOID) for the orphan petition and exit visas of these children until the fact that they have been abandoned or placed for adoption is verified. There are several couples (the numbers I heard was anywhere from 5-20) right now in Vietnam who have thought they were returning home with their babies but who are instead waiting for an investigation into whether that baby was bought or stolen by an unscrupulous or corrupt individual (or public official).  And if the babies weren't legally placed for adoption...I guess they are going home without a baby.

Corruption, baby buying, unethical agencies bribing Vietnamese officials so that their clients get babies fast...it all just makes my stomach turn.  The Vietnam adoption program was shut down for several years for this sort of problem, and when it reopened they had supposedly cleaned house. 

I feel sad for those parents, but I also have to say that when you are researching an international adoption, especially in a country like Vietnam that had a history of corruption problems you have to be careful when you are choosing an agency.  You have to make sure that your agency is above-board and completely transparent as to what the process is.  We chose Pearl S. Buck International because they had been around for a long time, and had done humanitarian work all over the world, but specifically in Vietnam since 1971.  Knowing that our child was legally placed was very important to us.  And since Pearl S. Buck doesn't deal with the provinces in question, we should be okay.  Pearl S. Buck did withdraw from dealings with another orphanage in Ho Chi Minh City because of "competition" for babies could lead to unethical practices. 

When I first started researching adoptions from Vietnam, I was solicited by agencies (they contacted me via e-mail from a Yahoo group of potential adoptive parents).  Red flag.  They told me there would be no waiting for a healthy infant.  HUGE red flag.  Of course, I wanted nothing to do with those people, and I have a hard time understanding how other's could associate with them. 

I mean, when every other reputable agency tells you it's a 6 month wait, by what other means than suspicious ones could you possibly promise a baby right away?  Don't get me wrong, I want another child as much as the next person but I'm not going to compromise my integrity or victimize this child's mother.  This whole thing just disgusts me.  Can people really be that desperate and stupid that they can't see through these agencies?  Do they not care who they have to run over to get a baby?

We are just hoping that this fiasco doesn't shut down the whole country to international adoption.  That would really suck. 

"Jakey's got an owie"

...as Hannah would say.

He started limping about 5 days ago, but we had just changed his arthritis meds, so I thought maybe he was adjusting to them.  I called Don and he thought perhaps he had been injured, or maybe it's *not* arthritis.  So we got him checked out this morning and he probably has a partial tear of his right anterior cruciate ligament.  We're going to have him taken in on Monday for a complete exam, which will require sedation since they need to really get in there and manipulate the joint and take xrays. 

He'll probably have to have it surgically repaired because if left untreated it will get arthritic and he may blow out the other ACL in a year.  We'll see what Don thinks and what the xrays show. 

The good news for Jake is that he is going to be practically on bedrest until this is sorted out.  You see, Jake is a very lazy dog who would spend all day lounging around the house if we let him.  So no going outside unsupervised lest the terror Kirby start mixing it up with him. 

So he started his serious resting as soon as we got home from the Vet and went to take a nap.  Hannah being the good doggie nurse that she is put a band aid on his knee.  I thought that was so cute!

Sunday update

Time for an update.  Like all weeks, they go fast. 

Hannah is doing well, and we had her stay at school for the afternoon program, and she did really well.  It was kind of unplanned--I got another cold and was scheduled to work that night, so we had her stay so I could get some rest.  She had fun and came home totally exhausted but happy.  We might take advantage of that more often.

We have been totally happy to be able to see the Green Bay Packers play on Monday night and again today.  We don't get a lot of coverage for them here in New Mexico, but now that they are 6-1 (edited: make that 7-1 woohoo!!!!!) I suppose they are more marketable.  I am just amazed at Brett Favre (I always have been) but it is so exciting to see him do so well at age 38.  It gives me hope for us old farts who are doing things later in age.

I am getting pretty frustrated with our adoption agency.  Lost papers, papers out dating, needing more and more documentation (our old homestudy, a third letter from our physician).  It's not like I haven't put together a dossier before, and have been very organized throughout the entire process.  It's hard for me not to be snippy when I call them, and I am doing my best to hold back.  The Chinese process, although more in-depth in some ways, was so much easier.  I don't know if it is the agency or the country, but CCAI never lost a piece of documentation.  And the USCIS (formerly the INS) is running later than it had been in the past, and we are in a holding pattern until we get our Preauthorization for Adoption from them.  I am stalking the mailbox every day and am disappointed every day. 

We got a shocker this week when a friend of ours told us she has breast cancer.  She's 37, no history of it in her family.  She's a strong woman, and has made her decisions quickly and is ready to face this thing.  The whole thing just stinks, though. 

We spent yesterday moving things around and bringing the queen bed upstairs to get our guest room upstairs for the holiday season.  Mom is going to be spending the winter here and that twin bunk bed just wasn't cutting it.  Dwayne knocked down the walls that divided up the basement so it really opened up the space.  I also rearranged my crafting area a bit, and kind of have a place for jewelry making and for paper crafting. 

I've been having a lot of success selling jewelry at work, to the point that I haven't updated my Etsy site because I'll make some stuff, bring it to work and then it sells before I can put it in the store.  It's actually easier to do it at work since I'm not photographing it and paying all the various fees. 

That's it for now.  We've got a pile of laundry to take care of while we watch the game.  Have a great week!