Goodbyes and Hello

This post was all but finished last week when my I got distracted, it timed out, and I was too exhausted to start it over.

And so.

Last week, I had two sets of goodbyes at work.  I said goodbye to my assistantship, the people who helped me through two incredibly tough years.  We've laughed together, we've cried together, we've had so much Starbucks together it's just ridiculous.  More than anything, though, I feel like I shared life and work with the people in my office.  Two years, and as suddenly as it started, it ended. We had lunch, I was showered (I mean seriously--my new office is full of cool stuff now) with gifts, and I had just enough time to clean out my cubicle.  I may have shed some tears as I took my schedule off the wall.  Still, it was a great two years.

The problem for a sentimental schmuck like me with having two jobs is once you've said your goodbyes in one position, you have to go to the next place and do it all over again.  I arrived Friday morning to flowers, neon cupcakes, sweet cards, and the people who have watched me grow to a newbie to a seasoned professional who (almost) has a master's degree.  How do you say goodbye to people who have watched me move from a newlywed to a nearlymom?  It's hard. Very, very hard.  Lucky for me, that office is always busy.  I was able to slip out without the host of official "goodbyes." I left, flowers and cupcakes in hand, and went to my next busy activity.  It could have been so much harder.  The hard part has been this week, knowing I am truly done seeing my friends each day at work.  I don't know that I'll ever get over my love for admissions and my people there.  My gratitude overflows for the things I learned there.

And that leads us to this week.  If you have been pondering my lack of updates (doubtful) I will put your worries to rest.  I have not been posting because I am three weeks from graduation and training for a new job at the same time.  Impossible, you say?  I'm starting to think so too.  Nonetheless, it's only three weeks. I can do anything for three weeks.  Like, finish two major projects and learn an entirely new field.  Yeah, no problem.  Somewhere in there, we're going to try to get fingerprinted for the adoption.

Speaking of the adoption, yes, we are still working on it!  We finished our first home study appointment last week.  I look forward to chatting more, just as soon as I don't feel brain dead.

Here's to a little rest (hopefully) on this Easter weekend.

He is risen, indeed.

The Wonder of 13

Many people feel strongly about the number 13.  For me, the feelings are stronger than most. Of course, it didn't start that way.

On Friday, April 13, 2007, a lovely, nervous young man took me to dinner at a sushi restaurant. We'd never been there before.  We had a lovely time, but it was sort of a weird dinner.  I got the feeling this hottie I'd been dating for six months was a little uneasy.  We paid and went outside, where it was dark and raining and then and there the number 13 became a ridiculously important and significant part of my life.

Yes, the most wonderful man asked me to marry him on what many would consider the most unfortunate of dates.

Luckily for us, we don't believe in luck.  We also married on Friday the 13th and now celebrate every Friday the 13th as it arrives on the calendar.

Today is not a Friday but it is the 4th anniversary of the day I started wearing my favorite piece of jewelry. I've never been a jewelry gal but I can't imagine not wearing this ring.  It's like my special link to that special day.  Four years ago I had no idea we'd be where we are today.  But I'm really lucky the hottie asked me to marry him.  I don't have a picture of the day we got engaged but here's a photo from that winter.

I love so many things about this man, but one of my favorite current qualities is his deep desire to be a great dad.  We baby-sat for friends to get some experience last weekend, and look who was a natural.

Here's to my husband, for taking a chance on a crazy.

Doing Things Grown Ups Do

Today, for the very first time in my adult life, I went garage sale-ing.  Yes.  I decided if I am going to try to be thrifty during this long journey toward parenthood, garage sale-ing might be a good way to score some bargains.  Hubs used to go with his mom and he was no less than pleased as punch.  We perused Craigslist, set our alarm, woke early, and set out on our first journey.

Well.

Two hours later, zilch.  I did learn some things, however.  First of which is that garage sales are hard to find.  The signs aren't always helpful, either.  We did hit up a few but found absolutely nothing we "needed" short of a circular saw out of our price range.  I also learned that not all garage sale item are bargains.  I did find a stroller that seemed promising, but its asking price was only $25 bucks less than retail.  Pass.

So I am not certain I want to continue on this little experiment.  In the category of good news, however, we got to spend some quality time together and even turned in some baby paperwork on our way home.  Quality time seems to be hard to come by these days, where most of the time we're at home we're reading adoption books or filling out adoption forms.  Luckily, we've committed to having a date night tonight.  I look forward to that!

For now, I'm off to more forms!

Weekend Recap and Paper Pregnancy

This weekend was as close to "nesting" as you can get during a paper pregnancy.  If it could be cleaned, raked, trashed, or organized, I did it!  Our garage looks like it could house a tenant it is so clean!  We are slowly but certainly trying to make room for a new person in this home.  Currently, Imaginary Child (what we've been calling him since we even dreamt of adopting) has a room filled with our stuff.  Over the course of the next year, we need to turn our giant storage closet (AKA the Smurf Room) into a space to hold IC.  I have big plans of painting and repurposing a dresser and other great stuff.  First item, however, is to get all our stuff to a new location.  No small feat.  The nesting will continue...

The remnants of what we purged this weekend (including leaves from the front yard).

Other than cleaning, we had a delightful dinner with our friends the Horns, also adopting from Ethiopia.  There is little more helpful than sharing life with someone who has already gone through the paperwork of adoption.  Being able to discuss our fears and excitements and the assortment of emotions that happen on an almost daily basis was just so beneficial.  Plus, we shared delicious food and delightful conversation about lots of things.  They have two girls, we we also got to watch parenting in action.  What we learned: there is never a dull moment in a home with two little girls:).

We received more paperwork to complete yesterday and we are officially in the full swing of the "paper pregnancy."  Hubs asked me today if I needed a preggy pop when the commercial for them came on today.  Um, not so much, Hubs, but thanks.  We spend our evenings reading books like "The Whole Adoption" and "Boundaries for Kids."  I'll let you know what I think when I finish them.  We also sit side-by-side on the couch or table and fill out paperwork together.  Case in point:

I have to keep reminding myself this is a marathon and not a sprint.  We will be working on this for a while.  It is daunting and exciting.

Our first fundraiser should be up on the blog this week, so be on the lookout.  Until then...back to the paperwork:).

Rollin In It (Paperwork, that is)

Well, the Horns weren't kidding.  The paperwork just keeps coming and coming.  We will quickly be moving out of our dinky folder and into a giant plastic box.  We received information yesterday about beginning our home study.  For those who aren't adoption gurus (so almost everyone, myself included), the home study is the part of the process where a social worker meets with the family to discuss the process and help prepare the family for the changes lying ahead.  Of course, the social worker also must "approve" the family for adoption but from what I've heard, the process much more about preparation and asking questions than it is a true "stamp of approval."  I am looking forward to it and also incredibly nervous about it.

With the home study introduction came sixteen (SIXTEEN) attachments to read and answer.  This includes 24 questions Hubs and I each have to answer them in paragraph form and turn them into our social worker.  The questions range from easy to though-provoking.  That's just the tip of the paper iceberg.  I am excited to get my thoughts onto paper and I know the discussion will be useful.  Still, just to look at the packet, it's pretty overwhelming.  We plan to get a jump start on it this weekend and go from there.

For now, we cooking a great dinner and marinating on the questions (and some mushrooms) before we answer anything on paper.

They don't call it a paper pregnancy for nothin.

Here's to paperwork!

Sometimes, I Can Be Creative

I have a super-creative bloggy friend named Polly.  Polly makes amazing stuff everyday.  No really.  Almost every day on her blog (found here) you can find sweet stuff Polly has made, like a changing table, cute pillows, coffee sleeves, and most recently, adorable burp cloths.  Yes, Polly is cool.  She's also inspiring.  After reading Polly's blog this week, I decided to start a sweet project of my own.  Nothing big but big for me.  I also made a step-by-step tutorial just in case anyone else happens to have this exact issue (which you probably won't).  So here it is:  the case of the see-through cupboard.

We moved into our house this summer.  Being youg, first-time homeowners we sacrificed on some things to get a price we liked.  One of those things is a pantry.  We have ample cabinet space but we had no where to keep our food.  Insert cool mom here.  My parents live in a small town and they can often find great deals on furniture and home decor.  My mom found me a pretty great cupboard for $60 bucks.  Seriously.  Problem solved!  Well, sort of.  Here is what our pantry has looked like for the past three months: (warning: all photos are from my phone so you get what you get)

Aside from the fact that the paint is chipping (which I have not yet fixed), this option is really only OK if you have the time and drive to keep your cabinets perfect all the time, since everyone can see into them.  Me?  Well, everyone could see what a slob I was all the time.  Solution:  purchase fabric and put it in the glass to keep everyone from being annoyed by my messy accumulation of pasta sauce and garbanzo beans.  I found some fabric that matched my lime green kitchen.

First, the paint was all over the windows so I had to get some paint remover stuff and a box cutter and pull it off the windows.  This took WAY longer than any other portion of this task.  I hope, for your sake, if you do this project, you are not saddled with removing paint from glass.  God help you if you do.

Next, I measured the windows and cut portions out of the fabric that were just a little bigger than the window.  I did this for two reasons: 1)I didn't want the pressure of having to match it up exactly and 2) I'm just not that particular so I actually didn't cut the fabric exactly straight and no one noticed b/c of the extra fabric!

I purchased some spray adhesive.  Spray adhesive, you say?  Yes, I didn't know it existed either.  But it does.  And it looks like this.

Then, I sprayed the spray adhesive directly onto the inside piece of glass.  I doused the cabinet.  Seriously.  I was a little afraid at first it might cause the glass to be opaque but turns out, it dries clear.  When I had a nice coat, I started at the top and laid the fabric in.  The best way I can describe it is to use the same sort of technique as you would to put a window cling on your car.  You start at the top and slowly move down, pressing the air out as you go.  I have noticed the air bubbles have continued to pop up, so I am continuing to press them out.  I am hoping this stops soon.

Three more times and, voila!  A cabinet I can make a mess of without our dinner friends judging me.  I'm pretty pleased.  In fact, it may encourage me to do more projects.  We have a dresser we are hoping to spruce up for the little one:).  We'll see.

 Just so you can see it, here's what the fabric looks like from the inside.  I plan to use my box cutter to trim out the excess once its had a few days to settle.

 And look how happy we are now that no one can see our spaghetti!  Or maybe we are just always this happy.

Here's to creativity!

Ethiopian Culture Lesson #1: Ethiopian Cuisine

Living in a small town, we don't get the opportunity for cultural enrichment in ways that some folks from the big city do.  So, when we visited our friends in Chicago, they decided it was the perfect time to enrich our Ethiopian experience by introducing us to Ethiopian food.  Chicago is known for their rich dining options and we were excited to take advantage of this opportunity.  We would never have this sort of option at home.

So, our last night in Chicago, we headed to Demera, a delicious Ethiopian restaurant.  A block from the door, we could already smell the rich flavors.  I will be honest and say I didn't know much about Ethiopian food, but hubs and I are both pretty adventurous when it comes to food so we decided to jump in head first and try a little of everything.

Some things to know about Ethiopian food.  First, there are no utensils.  I am a big fan of this approach.  Diners use their hands and tear off small pieces of pancake-like bread (called inerja) and then use the bread to pick up little dollops of food.  It can get a little messy but mostly it's a lot of fun, a whole lot of delicious, and much easier than learning another set of utensils (chopsticks: you and I are friends but we started as frenemies).

Five of us went on this journey together.  Since the menu was extensive and we wanted to try a little of everything, we took the advice of the manager and had a chef's sampling of dishes, family style.  I can say emphatically there wasn't anything on the plate I didn't enjoy.  I do not remember exactly everything but foods included were: lamb, beef, yellow peas, red lentils, and fish.  When they brought out the plate, it was so beautiful I almost didn't want to eat it.  So glad I did, though, because it was all tasty.  Each preparation has its own name.  The main one we enjoyed was tibs, a meat preparation that's sauteed and mixed with veggies and delicious spices.  If you're wondering what the flavors are like, I would say they are similar to Indian, with curry hints.  In general, though, Ethiopian is really just its own, yummy fare.

 Here is my attempt at a picture tutorial.  First, grab a piece of the inerja.  It's rolled like a rolly pancake or crepe, so just tear off a piece.

Next, scoop your desired dollop of food into your inerja pocket.  Below, I am scooping my fave, one of the two beef dishes.

Once it's scooped, it kind of looks like a squishy nacho.  Below, my delicious bite.

As you can tell, I am satisfied.  It really is so very tasty.

 Below, please enjoy the before, with the beautiful platter, and after: the empty platter.

We finished with some ice cream with coconut, raspberry, and some other flavors.  We left ridiculously full.

We are by no means Ethiopian cuisine experts, but we hope to know a whole lot more about culture in general by the time we head there.  If this first taste of culture was any indication, it's going to be a great experience.

Here's to delicious, Ethiopian food!