Page 61

February 23, 2008

It's Springtime!

I absolutely love spring! It is by far my favorite time of the year. I love watching everything come to life again after the winter. I am so lucky to live in a state where spring comes so early and winter is so short. I cannot wait to start gardening and hopefully will get my garden redone this weekend so I can get my seeds sown.

My peach tree is already starting to get leaves and blossoms. I am so excited to see if I can get peaches this year. A little history on my peach tree and why I am so excited it is getting leaves. I planted one peach tree last spring and it promptly died, so the nursery gave me a replacement but said I had to wait to fall to pick it up and plant it because it was already too hot here to plant any more fruit trees. We planted this tree in early fall and it lost all of its leaves immediately and it wasn’t even cold yet. So, I was worried it was dead but decided to wait until spring to see if it came back. It did!

For those of you who are now insanely jealous because it is so sunny here and you are buried in snow, just remember you have the right to brag in July and August when we are suffering from heat stroke.

February 22, 2008

In the hands of Fedex

Our dossier is officially in the hands of Fedex now and on its way to St. Louis, Missouri. I went by the Secretary of State today to get everything authenticated and they attached a sheet of paper and seal to each one.

Isn’t it pretty?

Today I also have to give thanks for woman’s intuition. As I drove away from the SOS I had a voice in my head that said to pull over and check the documents. Of course, I didn’t want to pull over, but I did give a quick look while sitting at a red light and the first sheet I looked at was missing the gold seal. I turned around, parked, re-checked absolutely everything, and went in and got the one gold seal I was missing.

I am so happy that our dossier is in the mail and out of our hands. It was a lot of work, but so worth it!

February 21, 2008

News that ya'll have been waiting for…

our CIS approval came today! We are super excited and ready to move on to the next step. I will hopefully be going to the Secretary of State tomorrow to get all our notarized documents certified, and then I will send our dossier (our blood sweat and tears of the last few months, also known as a giant collection of papers) via Fedex to Children’s Hope’s office in Missouri. It will be proofed by our agency then sent of to Washington, D.C. It will then be authenticated by the U.S. Department of State and then by the Ethiopian Embassy. Once it is done being authenticated it will go back to our agency who will then forward it to Ethiopia. This whole process will take three to four weeks.

February 21, 2008

We're Home!

We arrived safely back in Arizona yesterday. The flight was so much calmer than the last. We had a great time in Georgia. I wish we could have seen more of the state, we were inside most of the daylight hours and didn’t get to see much. Of course, we saw enough to know that there are trees everywhere. Very different compared to southern Arizona. It was cool but not cold, we left the day a cold snap was coming into town, so we lucked out. Matt got to meet a lot of clients face to face for the first time and has lots of potential new clients. The churches in Georgia sure do love him! He is pretty awesome at what he does, so I can see why.

Here is Matt sitting at the booth, doing some last minute work:

Here is the view from our booth, food everywhere:

The church that put on the conference was great about having lots of healthy food to eat at all times. There was a ton of fresh fruit and granola bars, Kashi my favorite.

We had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people, but I am so glad to be home. We both finally had a good night’s sleep last night and are feeling much better today.

February 17, 2008

Yes we are alive here in the ATL!!!

I must say the flight from Phoenix to Atlanta was by far the roughest, scariest flight either Stephanie or I have ever been on. All was well for the first 2.5 hours. But there was bad weather in Atlanta, so we were forced to go to a “holding pattern” over Alabama for an hour. Holding pattern basically means flying in a circle. It wasn’t fun but nothing compared to what happened next.

Atlanta was currently shut down for the heavy rains, and the tornado warning. We were the first flight they let back in. It was by far the worst turbulence we have ever been through. There were moments were stephanie and I were holding on for dear life. I’m talking free falling, drop 2500 feet in 2 seconds (we had flight stats on the monitor in front of us) scary moments.

After we touched down, i realized i could barely feel my hands, and my arms and upper body were tingly. Not sure what that means, but probably not good for my body.

I cant imagine doing this with kids on a 14 hour flight.

Well we made it to Atlanta safely.

For those that dont know, We are here for a Church Planting conference as a vendor. We really hope and pray for some new clients here at this show. Over 500 people, and we get to meet some of our current clients.

February 15, 2008

Hurt Pride

My pride took a hit this afternoon. I had an errand that absolutely had to be run today (no I didn’t put it off to the last minute), and Matt had the car and it is kinda rainy out. It is not really raining all that bad, you could almost say it was misting. Anyway I was a little ticked that I had to ride my bike in the rain, I will say it, I had a bad attitude over nothing. So, I was riding my bike stewing when my phone starts to ring and I can hear Matt’s ringer (who I am currently peeved at because he didn’t do said errand even though he was way busy) and let’s just say I was a little distracted. There was also a tricky part in the side walk that I was riding at the same time my phone was ringing, basically the side walk ends unless you take a sharp 90 degree turn, not overly hard, but it was slick and I was definitely distracted. Well I caught just the edge of the side walk. Now if you have every just caught the edge of the side walk with a bike tire, you can probably guess what happened, I ate it big time. Oh and did I mention this was right at a stop light where quite a few cars were stopped. Oh the embarrassment of a grown woman wrecking her bike going less than 10 miles an hour (I was also wearing a bright red jacket not necessarily inconspicuous). Some nice man did ask if I was alright as I was trying to act like nothing happened. I limped off feeling like a total loser and called my husband back, who by the way was calling me to offer to come home and run the errand. Isn’t he a sweetheart? I now also felt like a fool for being ticked at him. The lesson learned here, don’t be ticked at your husband over nothing and it is not going to kill me if I get a little wet.

I also apparently did not learn the lesson of not letting go of my handle bars when falling yet because my left wrist is sore, but don’t worry mom it wasn’t as bad as the time that landed me in urgent care. Lesson to those who ride bikes: Learn to fall without letting go of your handle bars. You could avoid wrist injuries.

Anyone else want to share an embarrassing story?

February 14, 2008

Silly Me

So, I recently heard that I should be doing three 20 minute sessions of cardio exercise a week and that you should exercise at 80% of your maximum heart rate. I thought to myself that is not too bad I can totally devote one little hour a week to cardio. I calculated the heart rate I should exercise at, 152.8 (220-my age * .8), and proceeded to start exercising again. I refused to wear my heart rate monitor because I knew it would tell me I wasn’t working out hard enough. I figured I would just put it back on after I got back into a little better shape. I did four butt kicking sessions of cardio and had a near melt down on Tuesday because I couldn’t believe how out of shape I was. Well today I finally decided to wear my heart rate monitor. The verdict, I was exercising too hard! I was getting my heart rate well into the 160s, oops. It could have been going higher, so I nipped that in the bud today. So, I did my workout today watching my heart rate and keeping it between 152 and 156. My workout went much better and I realized I don’t have to kill myself to get in shape.

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Birthday Arizona!

February 12, 2008

A Conversation with My Dad

Here is a quick conversation that took place yesterday with my dad.

My Dad “I can’t believe how much less stuff is going to the landfill now that we have a recycling bin.”

Me “Yep a lot of stuff can be recycled.”

My Dad “I was shocked. I didn’t think we would even half fill the bin the first week, but it was all the way full and there was less than a foot of stuff in the garbage bin.”

Proof of what one simple change can do.

February 11, 2008

Absolutely Fabulous

The weather that is! We have had a gorgeous couple of days here in Arizona. Highs in the 70s, lows in the 40s. It has been sunny and no wind! I do not like windy (i.e. dusty) days, so I have been loving the weather. This time of year makes it worth living through July and August. (Feel free to remind me of that when I am complaining about how hot it is.)

I am just glad I don’t live here. Burrrr!

February 2, 2008

Way to go Mom and Dad!

I thought I should give a little shout-out to my parents. They have been making lots of small changes to their daily lives in an effort to live greener. My parents have started recycling, using reusable bags, changed to CFLs, and started using more environmentally friendly cleaners. The real kicker for me this week was when I went to their house and realized they had stopped feeding their dogs on styrofoam plates and started using reusable bowls. I told you it was the little things that make me proud. This wasn’t even a necessary change I had brought up to them (even though it was secretly driving me nuts), they thought of it all on their own. They have made great strides in looking at the way they live and how it impacts the environment and I am proud of them! Thanks mom and dad, love you guys!

January 29, 2008

So proud of myself

Okay I don’t blame you if you think I am a big dork for posting this post, but I was seriously proud of my accomplishment this morning. First thing this morning I got out my recipes and made my grocery list for the week, so I could go grocery shopping before it was crowded out (not what I am proud of I am getting there). I arrived at the grocery store and went to get my list out, but it wasn’t there, oh man I thought I was in deep trouble, but decided to shop anyway. I frustratedly walked through the grocery trying desperately to remember what I needed and hoping I wouldn’t have to come back again. When I got home I anxiously got out my list to see what I missed. Are you ready for this? Only one item, green onions! Now that is impressive if you ask me. I didn’t even buy anything that wasn’t on my list. It is the little things that make me happy! Okay I am done being a dork for now.

January 27, 2008

Adoption Update

We really don’t have much to update everyone, but wanted to keep everyone in the loop. CIS has had our home study for about two weeks now, so we should have our I-171H in the next month. This weekend we took our last required class, it was a first time parents class. Today we organized our documents for our dossier to insure we were ready for when our I-171H arrives and we can get our dossier off quickly. It was a good thing too, I realized our home study agency forgot to sign one page of a document, and we were missing another form that we should have done by now. We also learned last week that the popularity of adopting from Ethiopia is growing and wait times for referrals are now three to nine months from the date your dossier arrives in Ethiopia. We suspected that this might happen, as it was a new program when we started, and assumed it would grow in popularity. We hope to bring Tom and Jerry home by the end of the year.

January 22, 2008

Warming up your car

With the cold New England winter weather about to swoop down on us, I have a queasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. Why, you ask? Because every winter when my boyfriend and I get into my car, I start it, then I put the car in gear after about 30 seconds and drive off. This drives my boyfriend nuts, and I have to hear about “how bad it is for my car” to put it into Drive before it warms up. He will start his car and sit there for a good five to 10 minutes before he shifts into Drive. My question is this: Am I really doing harm to my car by not letting the engine run for 10 minutes? If not, how can I prove this to him? I found an article in The New York Times a couple of years ago that stated that nothing is gained by sitting in a freezing-cold car while the motor is running before you shift into Drive. He thinks that the reporter at the Times didn’t know what he was talking about. But he just might listen to you if you say it’s OK. Please help! It’s cold here in Boston! — Lisa

RAY: How do you prove it to him, Lisa? Hand him this column and ask him to read the following aloud:

TOM: Dear Lisa’s Boyfriend: You have your head so far up your tailpipe on this one, it may be coming out your air intake.

RAY: How’s that, Lisa? Will that do it? You’re absolutely right, as is the reporter from The New York Times. On modern, fuel-injected cars — basically anything made in the past 20 years — you’re not helping the car at all by warming it up for five or 10 minutes.

TOM: On older, carbureted cars, that kind of extended warm-up can actually cause damage to the engine by diluting the oil with excess fuel. So it’s even worse if you have a really old heap.

RAY: But with modern cars, all you’re doing with a long warm-up is wasting gas, increasing pollution, raising the temperature of the planet and making yourself 10 minutes late for your chiropractic appointment. The proper procedure is to start the car. If it starts and keeps running, put it in Drive and go. Go gently (don’t back out of your driveway and floor it right onto a highway entrance ramp), because you’ll be warming it up during your first few minutes of driving, but DO drive it.

TOM: If it’s bitterly cold out, like 10 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit or lower, you can let it warm up for a minute or two to allow the oil to thin out a bit and circulate completely. But other than that, if it runs, driving it gently is the best way to warm it up.

RAY: So tell your boyfriend he not only needs to get off your case about this, but he needs to stop warming up the car himself.

TOM: AND, to make up for all the misplaced grief he’s given you over the years, he needs to start going to bed 10 minutes before you do, to warm up the bed for you on cold winter nights. That’s a warm-up activity he can do that’s actually useful!