beginning of the end

Here we are at the end of the year already. . . weird.  My picture taking has dwindled sadly as the year progressed.  The pic above is our Thanksgiving.  Looks a little empty, but the kid is sure happy to be there.  ;)

We enjoyed the Muppet movie on Thanksgiving Day.  Miley is a big fan!  

It was a nice-relaxing-simple holiday.  My favorite kind.

And now on to Christmas. . . the first decoration that went up was Miley's little tree.  Actually this is the only decoration up still.  She was thrilled to have a tree in her room.  She disappears into her room from time to time to just sit and admire it.  ;)

OK, I know it looks a little bare, but that's where the advent calendar comes in. . . which I explained and explained to the kid, cause she thought it was pretty naked as well.

grateful, appreciative

recap

Busy again, so the blog has been empty.  I'll try to catch you up a little.

For about a week I was sure Miley was possessed by the devil, but it turns out that she was just harboring some evil germs waiting to bloom into a nasty head cold. . . which of course she shared with me.  It was a relief to find out that she wasn't in fact evil, but I would have been more appreciative if she didn't share it as well.

Dave found an arch-nemesis, which makes me smile because he is the nicest guy I know and the fact that someone has finally been blacklisted by him is funny.  Dave drops Miley off at school which has a rather efficient procedure for dropping off and picking up, well there are some parents that don't understand it (no matter how many times it was explained) and one lady in particular causes delays for Dave.  He tries to beat her to the school, but she always ends up in front of him in line and chats with the teachers and blar blar blar.  He'll rant about it if you ask him.  I just find it funny.

You know that time-suck called Pinterest?  Yeah well, I actually put it to good use and made three of the things I pinned.  Actually, four, if you count the homemade drain cleaner idea. . . not as fun as the other projects but still, useful.  The tree skirt looks great.  The shirt dyeing was alright, and the cloud dough was a whole lot of messy.  I've got pictures of the last, well in my camera.  Eventually they'll make it here.

My Christmas is mostly finished.  I just need to finish a couple of projects and wrap everything up.  It feels good to be this far ahead.  I also have my Christmas cards made, well mostly.  Still, before December that's huge progress.

I'm making an advent calendar for Miley this year.  We got her a little Christmas tree to go in her room and bought some little ornaments for it. . . 24 to be exact.  I'm using little canvas baggies with numbers stamped on them and magneted to a board in my kitchen to hold the ornaments.  Well I will be once I get them done.  Let the countdown begin.

We ordered our Thanksgiving this year.  Yep, lazy.  I think I'm only making mashed potatoes and picking everything else up.  Oh wait, stuffing too.  Not too shabby.  I think it will be a very relaxing Thanksgiving this year.

We met the Ethiopian adoption director this past week.  That was pretty cool.  I'm not sure why he decided to visit this side of the world, only to see us?? yeah, probably not, but it was great to meet him.  He'll be the one who shows us around when we head to his side of the world next year and also the person who refers a child to us.  Kind of a big deal.

Miley thinks we dress up for every holiday now.  Her plan for Christmas is to be a princess.  For Christmas I'll allow it, but if that is ever suggested for Halloween I may cry. . . unless pig's blood is involved.  ;)

We're kinda obsessed with the Muppets around here and are very much looking forward to seeing the new movie this week.  Miley has watched all the Muppet movies we own, and sadly we don't have them all, multiple times in the last month.

It's officially been 11 years for Dave and I.  Our anniversary was not eventful.  Miley was running a fever and I was feeling it coming on a little too.  Our plans got rewritten a number of times before the fever appeared and then I just threw them out anyway and we celebrated as a family with take out from all our favorite places in town.  Simple and delicious, but I could have done without the head cold.

So this head cold popped up this weekend and it has superbly bad timing.  I've got YW stuff to do, invitations for YW in Excellence, refreshments, oh and a lesson to plan for Sunday.  :(  Not to mention the fact that Miley is now feeling better and wearing my sickly low energy into the ground. . . I may never recover.

I'm considering keeping Miley home from her next school field trip.  It's to the grocery store, she's been there plenty and so have I.  I'd rather sleep in that day.  Mmmm, that's sounds nice.

Well that feels like a decent recap to me.  I left out the poop stories so it'd be classy, but if you're thinking that I've got things under control, and feeling less so yourself, remember I left the less desirable bits off and you should be grateful for that.  Trust me.  ;)

my girls

Just a picture or two for the day. . .

sending love

 Little girl got it into her head that we should celebrate Daddy's birthday last week (officially it's in March).  She wanted to give him some of her toys, which she piled on his side of the bed, and then of course, he needed a card.  

She filled the card with blown kisses, literally stood there and blew kisses into it until she felt it was sufficiently full of love. . . closed it and covered it with stickers.

The love mail then had to go in the mail so Daddy would get it, as all birthday cards come.

She was so excited for Daddy to get home from work and get her mail!  . . . but the toys on the bed, I don't think they stayed there until he got home.

just us

Family picture time of year.  That's right, it's our anniversary again.  Our awesome friend Brittany let us be ourselves in these pics. . . she really had no choice, we are really awful at posing.  Sorry Brit.  ;)

Now you may be wondering if we took any normal type photos. . . yeah no, we can't fake a decent looking normal.  How silly of you to be wondering that.  ;) 

Oh wait, here's one that is pretty darn cute!

You'll have to wait for our Christmas card to see more.  Yes, there is more strangeness to come.  Something to look forward to.  ;)

processing

In case you were wondering what we are doing right now with the adoption. . . processing.  Well I'm not processing much, ruminating would be a more appropriate description for me. . . but the agency and then governments, they're doing the processing on our behalf.

Our home study is done and in the hands of the social workers and our agency.  All our paperwork has been filled out and turned in.  All our background checks have cleared us.  All the repetitive questions have been answered.  Every inch of our lives has been ferreted out for the government to peruse.  Everything is signed, notarized, and stamped with my blood and sweat.  ;)

Now all of that stuff is being crammed into a dossier to be sent off to the Ethiopian embassy and the Utah state government.  Where I'm sure they'll look at it and think, hey these are interesting people let's not take our sweet time processing their documents.  Well I can hope.  ;)  This part will take awhile, so don't be holding your breath waiting for us to give you news.  I could give the reasons why, that we've been given, but for time's sake lets just say it is a matter of bureaucratic inefficiency and cultural chasms of technology.  Seriously, make yourselves comfortable.

Our paperwork will be translated and sent on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. . . and then who knows.  In the meantime, we do nothing.  Yep, nothing but wait for a referral, that's what comes next.  I shouldn't say nothing, we have been doing a lot of research and have learned a lot of interesting things about Ethiopia.  Sitting on the couch blankly staring off into the middle distance does sound nice though.  ;)  Just not so much in my schedule.

The Ethiopian director will refer a child to us based on our parameters and I'm sure a good portion of inspiration.  The director is Ethiopian, and reputably awesome.  He's also the branch president in his area.  Our agency works with seven orphanages in Ethiopia.  A referral will be sent to our office, we'll get any available medical information and anything else they know about the child.  This could be very scant, but they do test for a number of diseases and that will be included.  We accept our referral in writing, unless we have a VERY good reason not too, or risk not getting placed with at all because the Ethiopian government does not take kindly to insincere people, understandably.

Obviously what I'm telling you from the referral on is what I've been told and not from experience, so more detail could be added in the coming year from our actual real life.  ;)

Would you like to hear the rest of the process?  Well I don't have time to wait for an answer or no answer, so I'm just going to add it here anyway. . .

They encourage us to travel to Ethiopia as soon as possible after we receive the referral.  Backtrack a little, after we accept the referral (before we travel) the child is moved out of the orphanage and into a transition home run by our agency in Ethiopia.  They have better care there and more attention given to them.  This is where the child will stay until they are brought home.  Ok, so we travel within weeks of getting the child's info if possible, and we'll be sure to make it so.  ;)

The first trip is to officially accept the referral by seeing them in person.  It is required in Ethiopia to do this, as it is in Russia and other places which ask for two separate trips.  There are many reasons why, one of which is to try and avoid stupid people (like that lady with the Russian child who decided she didn't like him and wanted to bring him back to Russia) from taking adoption lightly.  For us the benefit of the two trips is that we will not have to adopt the child twice.  The governments see that we have physically seen and accepted the child and the adoption process starts rolling in Ethiopia.  Once completed that's it, we will not have to take any legal action to adopt her in the states.  Once she lands on US soil she will be a citizen.

Our first trip will be for four days.  We'll get to see Ethiopia, spend time with the child, however she will remain in the transition home and their care.  We will then return home and leave a huge chunk of our hearts on another continent for a couple months.  Fingers crossed this time is short and I can survive it.

One last trip to Ethiopia and we bring our girl home.  That's it.  Well for now.  Other little things are involved, like I don't think I mentioned the shots (shudder). . . but in a nutshell that's where we're headed. . . if you were curious.  ;)

Miley the kid

The other morning Miley approaches me with a request. . .

'Mom, I want to be a cowboy.  I need a hat, boots, and a horse.'

"Oh really. . .well you have a hat somewhere, but you'll have to find stuff to pretend for the rest."

And off she went to recreate herself as a cowboy.

Exhibit A:  The picture is of her finished cowboy ensemble. . .

her cowboy hat, though it is on sideways;
sunglasses for those bright days on the trail;
pink sandals, for some reason they read cowboy to her;
a harmonica for cowboy type entertainment;
and Julius the giraffe. . . to ride into the sunset.
Oh and of course she's in her jammies too.

Yeeehaw!

surviving October

It was more hectic than expected, but we made it through.  Not my favorite way to make it through my favorite month, by merely surviving, however sometimes it goes that way and so I won't complain.  I didn't even get to carve pumpkins, sad.  OK, complaining a little.

Here are some things we learned this last month.

I will be the mom that is required to attend all my child's field trips, because she is that willfully independent she needs constant supervision.  My girl went up in front of the group to the lady giving the rather boring talk about chickens and tapped her side saying, 'excuse me, can we go see the horses now?'  She tried to free the goats from their pen.  They didn't seem happy cooped up to her, or she wanted to get inside with them, who knows.  ;)  She wanted to see everything at the farm and drew a little crowd of followers after her, much to the teacher's dismay.  I got comments from the other parents like, 'wow she's a firecracker, she has spirit, she's not afraid of anything, what a character. . .' I'm trying to believe those are compliments.  ;)  Thankfully, her teacher said she is a very good listener in class and stays in her seat, I definitely asked after that field trip experience.

Teenagers are not as smart or cool as they once were.  ;)  So the youth had a Halloween party and my pirate-ness wasn't ready yet, so I pulled out a costume from a previous year. . . the straight jacket.  They seriously didn't know what it was!  Are you kidding me??!!  Even some of the leaders were confused.  It's a REAL straight jacket and is impressively-scarily-cool. ??!!!  Whatever.  I'm seriously thinking about moving to get away from so much lameness.  It might be contagious, or at least spoil my Halloween spirit.  Totally disappointed.

We should have explained trick-or-treating to our 3 year old, beforehand.  We had only ever done the trunk or treat in years past, so this year when we went door to door in a friend's neighborhood (cause ours is lame, more reasons to move), it wasn't as easy as it looks.  First, Miley asked a nice lady handing out candy if she could come in, and the lady said yes.  So she did.  I ran up the sidewalk to pull her out of a stranger's house, but it wasn't until later when I thought about it that the incident kinda freaked me out.  Seriously, who says yes to strange mini pirates?  She did ask nicely, I guess.  Second, Miley wasn't a grab a candy and run kind of gal, she wanted to have conversations at each house.  She would talk to them about their decorations or their costumes, thank them for the candy and then call out 'have a nice day' as we dragged her away from their porches.  What we should have learned after the first few houses was that we needed to go to the door with her instead of let her do it with just the other kids. . . but we're slow like that and she wasn't scared to do it on her own.  Oh and sometimes she'd forget what she was supposed to say and instead say 'trick or tricky'.  I think I like that better.

Kids do Halloween for candy and don't even realize they are in costume.  At the trunk or treat I told Miley to say something pirate-ish to anyone else who was dressed as a pirate.  There were many, but none had seen any time at sea cause their costumes still had the fold marks from the packaging. . . which may be why when Miley happily greeted them with a hearty ARRRRRGH, they looked at her funny and walked away.  I may be making my daughter into this 'spirited' 'character', those field trip parents commented on.  Oh well.  She's definitely not boring. . . or shy.

My Halloween decorations may be too subtle for some.  Subtlety isn't really my thing, so I was more than a little surprised when the social worker and her husband, after sitting in our living room interviewing us for quite awhile finally commented on the ball and chain dangling from my entertainment center.  They thought it was real, from our hobby of deep sea diving and wreckage recovery. . . and were surprised that it was a prop for Halloween decorating.  Go figure.  I never explained the potion and poisons, maybe I should have just to be sure.  ;)

If you go to the trouble of making your house white glove test worthy, inevitably no white glove will be used.  At first you'll feel the relief of not being tested as such, but then the bitterness sets in at all the hard work unrecognized by the glove.  ;)  I cleaned and bubble wrapped my house for our latest home study.  You just never know what kind of social worker you'll get.  Of course after all that work I was looking forward to a white glove being swiped across every surface, which never happened.  OK, it has never happened upon inspection, but I can't help but think it should.  Once again, Danny Tanner would be proud.

Miley is attracting unwanted attention.  I don't thank her for this either.  She will happily and excitedly tell anyone that 'she is getting a baby sister.'  That's the extent of her explanation, so I get congratulations and glances at my figure.  Thankfully no one has touched me yet.  ;)

Toy Story 3 has ruined my parenting style.  My best threat for cleaning her room has dissolved.  You know, if anything is left on the floor it gets thrown away.  Well, Miley will gladly load all her toys into a garbage bag and put it in the garbage can instead of cleaning up.  She did.  At first this totally floored me.  I explained that the garbage man would take them away, and she understood what would happen.  Later I heard her say something about her toys finding their way back home like Woody.  Crap. 

Three year olds and youngest children have something in common.  They can do NOTHING quickly.  Dave is a youngest, and in my experience I have yet to find a youngest child that moves at a pace any faster than slow or casual.  Needless to say, it's irritating to live with for me.  I've found Miley has this same disease.  I heard her the other day talking to her doll about hurrying cause we don't have enough time to be that slow.  Uhhhh, I don't really like these little glimpses in the mirror, she gives me.  ;)  But I'm sure I'll say that to her again, and again, until she (fingers crossed) grows out of this phase. . . unlike her daddy, who lives to torture me like that.  ;)

Don't talk to strangers is something I should teach the kid.  While shopping at Target last month, Miley was doing her customary greeting to everyone we passed. . . which must of got boring for her because then she started to stray from the script of Hi, how are you?, to Hi, it's my birthday.  Which they would reply with a 'Happy Birthday' and she'd thank them.  She knew it wasn't her birthday.  I confirmed that with her, but she found it fun to say.  What am I going to do with this kid?  Oh right, teach her not to talk to strangers. . . or maybe just not to lie to them.  I don't know.  ;)