Bill and Sandi got their referral today! (Go here for more info.)
Sandi and I met online when we both had first begun our adoption journeys. We chat a few times a week about pretty much everything, she has even taught me how to knit and given me tips on becoming a parent (always willing to answer my silly questions). I am so very excited for her and Bill and I know without a doubt they are ready to bring their boy home!
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals and probably none for the next couple of weeks.
Running and Push-Up Updates: Same as last week.
Gardening: I still have a ton of basil and didn’t want to dry it all to preserve. A friend recently had asked me if I was going to make pesto with all that basil, I had never eaten (to the best of my recollection), let alone made it. I found out it was pretty easy to make and I could freeze it for future use. I tried this recipe and this recipe. I made my pesto, froze most of it and then made myself this pasta:
It was pretty yummy! I didn’t use cherry tomatoes because I had some full size ones from the garden to use and I forgot the peas, I don’t think they would have made a difference though.
Random:
I went to walk out the front door yesterday and about walked into a spiderweb that covered the top half of my door with a big fat spider sitting in the middle. I had just been through the night before and there was no spider, but we did have a ton of bugs which were attracted to the porch light, so the spider was just being smart as to where to build her web, of course it ended up being a fatal choice.
She was pretty ugly and gave me quite a fright!
I made this delicious french toast casserole Saturday night for baking Sunday morning and it was a big hit with Matt. Let’s just say it was so good he ate the leftovers last night for dinner because he wanted more. (I left the pecans off because he doesn’t love pecans on his food.) In keeping with my wanting to make all my own bread I had to make the challah bread myself. I learned challah was a braided bread and didn’t feel like doing that, so I found a bread machine recipe that worked great, I followed one reviewer’s suggestion of adding one more egg and I think it turned out well. This is a great recipe to make the night before and pop in the oven the next morning.
The first tomatoes of the season are finally here! My garden didn’t produce the early season tomatoes we should get in Arizona around May/June. I was shocked my plants made it through July and August, and managed to produce some fruit. I tasted one yesterday and let’s just say it was worth the wait!
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals and probably none for the next couple of weeks.
Running and Push-Up Updates: Let’s not talk about exercise this week.
Pets:
Carter has a favorite room in the house and it is the nursery. Hopefully he is willing to share when Tom and Jerry get here.
Carter with Sammy
Carter in the crib
Gardening:
This week I chopped back my basil and decided to dry some for future use.
Me and the basil (not all this basil could be dried, you just pick out the good leaves and no stems)
One of the three spiders that we later found in the basil while pulling off the leaves (yikes I was holding three spiders and didn’t know it)
The dried basil (I also filled the little jar that fits in my spice rack)
Recently I have been feeling very overwhelmed with my commitment to the Carbon Account Challenge and feeling guilty from what I had learned in that first month. I was very frustrated with the fact that the efforts we had made to make our lives a more sustainable one had not come as far as I had hoped. It was very daunting to see it there in black and white. So, mid-way through August I just stopped tracking, thinking I would just put guesstimates in when I felt up to it. Then I read this blog and one very wise suggestion reminded me that it is okay to take changing our lives a little at a time:
Start with one or two things (take the bus one day a week, use cloth bags, etc) and make it a habit. Then move on to another and another.
I have decided for now to not track every little thing, but to continue making little changes to our lives, and check our progress every few months with the carbon account. Sometimes I need to be reminded that I can’t do it all at once, but I can and will eventually get to where I want to be.
Yep I pickled okra this afternoon. I also pickled some more banana peppers and made bread. It was a busy afternoon in the kitchen!
After my Friday Update last week, my Uncle Rick thought he would share one of the spiders that lives in his garden.
Yikes! I am glad I don’t have any of those. Anyone else want to share the creatures that live in their garden?
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals. 🙁
Highchair I scored off of Craigslist for Tom or Jerry (of course, Jackson gave it a test run for us)
Running Update: I didn’t run at all this week. I still have been staying up too late watching the Olympics to bother with getting up early to run, but I have been riding the exercise bike this week. It is so much nicer to exercise in air conditioned comfort.
Push-up Update: We did them this week, well I still have one more set to do, but we did them! We did repeat week 2, so we are a little behind, but I thought it would take more than six weeks anyway.
Matt got a new-to-him toy this week:
Jackson was excited about the box
Carter was excited about the foam (he loves to eat foam)
Matt was excited for the new toy and that his wife let him put it together in the house because it was so hot in the garage
Random stuff from the web:
I was looking for something to do with old magazines and might have to give this a try.
All I have to say on this story is, “Seriously!?”
I decided to participate in blog action day and figured I better post about it here so I remember to have my post done by October 15.
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
Thanks to Kellie for posting about Eden Reforestation Project – Ethiopia. I had looked a while back for a tree planting program in Ethiopia and hadn’t stumbled upon Eden’s website. I am so happy to have read her post today because reforestation in Ethiopia covers two of my greatest passions, taking care of the earth and Tom and Jerry’s homeland.
Tesfaye from Chronicle Project on Vimeo.
There is also a free coloring book download for those of you with kids or who are teachers.
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals. So, they have to be coming soon, right? This isn’t all that unusual with international adoption. I do like it better when the line is moving, but I am not very stressed about the wait at this time.
Running Update: I ran once this week. 🙁 Let’s just say someone stayed up too late every night to watch the Olympics and refused to get up early before the heat set in and run.
Push-ups: We didn’t do them, don’t know what happened we just forgot. I am pretty sure we are now going to have to just repeat week 2.
Gardening: Most of my plants are still alive, they made it through the hottest part of the season!
Taffi helping weed (Just ignore the photographer’s shadow, she doesn’t think these things through)
My peppers (they were feeling left out of the last post on gardening)
A bee doing his job (I hadn’t seen a lot of bees this summer, but they finally showed up!)
Scary Spider (I let them live in the garden because they eat the bugs that eat my plants, but there are several of them and I have a tiny fear of spiders)
What an exciting week, ehh?
I came across this post today and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share.
\~~~\
This means, “I stayed in bed this morning and accidentally missed church. Please don’t judge me if we see each other at a restaurant on Sunday afternoon and I am clearly wearing clothes that indicate I did not go.” (Also known as “bedside Baptist.”)^^^^
This means, “Our church had to install speed bumps in the parking lot because despite what the sermon said, I will run you over if you get in my way when I am trying to leave church.0:)
This means, “I am a Christian with a halo and a unibrow. I wear both proudly.”!!!
This means, “I drink coffee during church! Lots of coffee!”.oO
This means, “Our small church is becoming a megachurch.”Y Y Y
This means, “You will see lots of people singing with their hands raised at our church.”&
This means, “I am a bald worship leader.”\_ \_ \_
This means, “Our new church building has movie-theater style seats.”~~~~~>
This means, “We handle snakes at our church during service.”o o o o o o o
This means, “I am not afraid to throw Skittles in order to wake up a crowd of people.”0$
This means, “I tip with tracts instead of money at restaurants.” (Shame on you.)[ –> <– }
This means, “I can’t clap on rhythm during worship songs. When I try to bring my hands together, it’s like one hand is thinking one thing and the other is thinking something completely different.”
