BOOK CLUB!!!

Most of my followers were there so for them this is just a recap.

Our first book club meeting was hosted by yours truly last Friday. There were a total of 9 adult ladies and two wee ladies and two on the way (not sure if they will be ladies or not)!! We had drinks, food and wonderful conversation which amazingly did include book disscussion. We managed to get all nine at my table which is indended for more like four! I don't know how but it worked.

Jennifer Nave and 6 day old Alexandria

Rita Lennon

Hillary Ogg, Julie and Hailey Papp

Jamie Philips

Julie and Hailey PappKallie Widaman - the newest Mom

Aunt Jenny Fink and Hailey
The hostess
The Salads - I loved them...


There you have it!

Bent wheel and Dairy Queen

DH will likely be furious with me for sharing this but it's rather funny (to me at least).

For those in the area you know this past Saturday was cold, snowy and a little slick. Anyway, DH and went to mass like good little Catholics. On the way home we decided to pop into the DQ near our house for dinner, we still needed to wash the dogs before we headed to Helena on Sunday and didn't really want the clean-up or leftovers from making dinner since we weren't going to be home for a few days.

DH slightly looses control of his car as we're pulling into DQ and collides with the curb. We park, inspect the vehicle and see everything looks okay. I was concerned he popped his tire. We proceed into DQ, we stand at the register for about 5 minutes while we see a group of teens in the back joking, drinking soda (or whatever), occasionally looking at us but not actually helping us. We considered leaving at that point...we should have. Finally we place our order, I get a burger, DH orders a chicken sandwich. It was a bit before we actually get our meal but at last we do.

DH takes his first bite and I immediately see the terror in his eyes, he hands me his sandwich and mumbles with a mouth full 'does this look right', I take is sandwich and break it open to find a nearly completely raw piece of chicken!! I'm not kidding!! I was so awful! DH spits out his bite and we let the clerks know, he gets his $$$ back since he's completely lost his appetite. We head home a little flabbergasted.

The next day we get on the road heading to Helena. As soon as DH hits 60 MPH his car starts to totally shimmy and shake! It's a little scary although we figure it's from the collision with the curb and it's probably just his alignment. We got off the highway at the next exit to try and find a place to have his alignment fixed...good luck! Nothing is open on Sunday's. We proceed to Helena.

We decide we'll drop the car off Monday morning before we have to be at the church to have his alignment fixed. During class we get a call from the shop that says his alignment is fine but instead DH BENT THE WHEEL!! I can't believe he hit the curb hard enough to bend his wheel but not pop a tire or foul up his alignment. The shop moved the wheel to the back to lessen the shake, DH has to get a entire new wheel.

Moral of the (very long) story...DON'T EAT AT DQ!!!

Adoption

My posts which will recount the past several days are going to go in reverse...stay tuned.

DH and I arrived home yesterday evening after completing our two day workshop in Helena. Road conditions could have been a lot worse and for that we are thankful. We feel so incredibly fortunate to have been able to attend such a workshop. Each adoption is different but the 'process' is the same. I can't imagine there is anything we don't know about the process. We are confident we have made the right choice and feel lucky to be working with CSSM.

We learned about each step of the process and even got to speak with 3 adoptive families, an adoptee and a birthmother and birthgrandmother. There is so much to think about! There is still a ton of paperwork to complete and are off and running with it. We are going to get things taken care of as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

We have so many more answers so if anyone out there any questions let us know.

Interesting Fact -
The average age of a CSSM birthmother - 22 years old

We're off

to Helena on Sunday for our adoption workshop. We are excited to be doing something for the cause. It appears we will not be starting our homestudy as quickly as we would have liked. Apparently there is a lot more paperwork...not sure what or how there can be! Anyway, we doing something other than reading and that feels good.

Our weather has been pretty boring, grey and in the 20's. Today wind has been added and supposedly we're to get sun. Our drive to Helena may be a little dicey, I check the pass we have to climb and it looked a little, no, a lot scary. Hopefully by Sunday it will be better.

DH was able to go snowshoeing a couple times this week which he loved. He was able to climb above the inversion and actually see the sun. I'm glad he was able to get out and do something before he starts school Wednesday - his last semester of class work!!! Can you believe it? I can't!

The girls book club has it's first meeting tonight...I'm hosting! Yikes! I've never hosted a book club meeting or even been to one, I don't know what I'm doing. I'll report back on how it goes.
Have a great weekend, be back with you next week.

It all started

with a search for missing white cotton pole tab curtains. It ended with me putting in about 20 hours of work around the house and garage and still no curtains.
I can be so productive when DH is out of the house that I sometimes even amaze myself. I got our middle bedroom cleaned out (we'll now refer to as Jr.'s room), cleaned out to the point that what's left is either going to be used in Jr.'s room or be escorted to the curb. In order to get Jr.'s room cleaned out I had to rearrange our room to fit the elliptical, purse tree and TV. I'm amazed it all fit and doesn't look that bad...
Since I had the house tore up I figured I would do some of the things I now will need to be done for our homestudy. I moved cleaning supplies out of reach which required the reorganization of our laundry area, two under sink areas and a hall closet. It really is amazing how much work goes into one little task.
Anyway...I'm exhausted and re-energized all at the same time.

I know you all are sick of me just typing...I will post pictures soon. I don't know of what but there will be pictures.

Ramblings

Another week has passed. Nothing to report. Life is good, weather is mild and that's about it. Have a great weekend y'all.

Re-count

There are actually 7 people close to me who are pregnant! One may no longer be pregnant so that would just add one to my newly born list which would increase that number to 5! OMG!!

Had a lovely weekend which resulted in lovely fingernails and toenails. Wish the weather was a little better so I could show them off. Actually, it's not that bad but no that nice either.

DH and I, correction, mostly me started the B4 Baby list, he will just have to orchestrate the execution of the tasks. I've come to realized most expectant parents make such a list and rarely complete it. My goal is obviously to complete it, time will tell. The tricky thing is once (if) we're approved we may not have much notice...yikes! Or years... I don't want to start on the list until we're approved. The list consists of mostly non baby related items and more of things that need to be done anyway and once baby is here it will unlikely we will ever get them done. Anyone want to help organize my garage? HA!

One item that has been plaguing me is the lack of a catalog for our movies. I know that plagues most people :). DH and I were successful in cataloging all our movies, we now have them by genre and title, and now we know exactly how many we have. Check!

Baby BOOM!!

I'm absolutely amazed and thrilled with the number of people I know who are pregnant or have had a child in the past 6 months! There are 5 people near to me who are pregnant and 4 who have children under 6 months! I love it. It does make me wish our process was a little quicker but I by no means want to change the road we are on. I just can wait to experience what everyone is experiencing - good things come to those that wait; right?
Congratulations Fink family! Can't wait to meet your little one in mid July.

Settled

Just got settled back into my desk, partly because I've been away for two weeks but also because I just got remodeled. Not remodeled really, but rearranged. I'm having to re-learn where everything is and which direction to look for it - is left?- is it right? I don't know! The purpose is to get me out of the freezing draft that comes from the door I sit near. So far so good.

Since our return we've had all sorts of weather, snow, rain, ice, grey blah blah blah. DH and I have been working every day to chip away at the accumulation of ice on our sidewalk, patio and driveway. Finally found some ice melt at the Ace Hardware this morning.

DH and I spend New Years Eve, day and the 2nd with our friend Sandra. Below are pics of the festivities. We had a blast! It was so nice to be around friends and in our old stomping ground, eating, seeing and smelling (don't you just love the smell of cows?) all those things we miss.

The Party Group!

Our 6th New Year!

Our dear OLD friend Larry

We apparently didn't get enough drinking and playing games New Years Eve 'cause that's what we did on the 1st too!

DH and his Mexican Train harem

The Girls - Michaela, Sandra and ME

One our way to SF...

I don't know if I'll get pics of our SF stay. I didn't bring my camera out with us, some were taken with cell phones but waiting to see if our host and hostess James and Allison will be able to get them emailed to me. We spent Friday night in SF/Alameda. Again, we had a blast! Allison treated us to a lovely Mexican meal - I love and terribly miss good Mexican food. We then did a little bar hopping while pondering and deeply discussing the efficacy of drinking a glass of water per alcoholic drink. I think we did well, woke Saturday morning tired but feeling pretty good. Then we were off to snow country...

Missoula again

We're back in Missoula, it's a little bitter sweet. Our travel day was a cake walk. We were able to see the entire Colts game except the OT at the Denver airport. We got a call from my 'rents as we were taxiing to inform us of the loss. DH is a bit sad and now wondering what he's going to do until school starts. I know of a couple of adoptions books he needs to read...
We were greeted at the airport with a temp of 8 degrees, a pick-up with doors and windows that were frozen shut and frozen into parking spot. With a little pushing from DH was able to get rolling. Got home to find our garage door was frozen shut. Are you seeing a theme? I guess while we were gone Missoula got a gamut of weather including rain.
The house was just as we left it with no problems. We picket up the pups yesterday, they seem to have done just fine at the kennel and are already back into the home routine.
It's snowing like crazing....
Will fill you in and post pics of the last several days of our trip in the next couple of days.
Happy New Year!