Come...and gone

Yesterday came and went and we didn't get our grant application sent off.  We are still waiting for stuff to be finished.  Stuff other people have to do.  Stuff that SHOULD have been finished months ago.  I am beyond frustrated.  We mailed our adoption application on October 24th....one week from today that will have been SIX MONTHS.   I never imagined that it would take us this long to get approved...especially given my Type-A git-'er-done personality.  We have hit snags that we shouldn't have.  When we initially turned in that batch of paperwork (in November), the fact that we had out of state licenses should have been noticed.  If there was ANY question, calls should have been made to find out THEN if we would need to change them.  We also waited two months for a second signature...and in the end Plan B was used anyway.
I can't sleep tonight.  (currently 2:14am)  I feel tremendous frustration at my lack of control of the situation.   Add that to an afternoon nap, a 2 Liter of Diet Coke and you have one girl to whom sleep lies just out of reach. 

My Sailor Boy

My awesome hubby was Bluejacket Sailor of the Quarter for the whole base!  There was a ceremony, he got gifts and this cool statue. 

Go Nathan!!

Winner, winner chocolate dinner!!

(What??!? you don't eat chocolate for dinner??!?  Wierd-O)

I have awesome friends. :)  Not saying that you don't...but I'm pretty sure my friends are more awesome-er than yours.  Just sayin'. 

I loved reading through all your comments.  We had a great weekend, and to have it peppered with messages from you made it just that much better.  Thinking back on some of the stories made me laugh...and it also pretty much sealed my status as a band geek.  Ah well...can't fight what you were meant to be, right?

Because I'm feeling all sorts of crazy excited love I'm going to give both those sets away! :)  Now for winners...I used random.org to pick the winners. 

The first winner is:

Sterling...whose comment was:
Sterling Bo said...
I'm following your blog.. because you followed mine... oh, and because your owls are cute. Mostly because the owls are cute. LOL!



And the second winner is:

Becky...whose comment was:
Becky said...
Well to be honest (and this may seem a little indulgent, but oh well) My favorite post was on July 19, 2007 when you wished me happy birthday on your blog. I hadn't talked to you in forever and, okay I admit it, was blog stalking you. This took me by complete surprise and really made my day. Thanks for that :)
Also, I really liked your last blog about Nathan being locked out of your apartment and calling for help. That really made me laugh!

Favorite of all blog posts - check

I think it is fitting that one of the two winners one is an old friend and the other is a new friend...yet both friendships started at some sort of band function.  (Once again...my fate is sealed)   I met Becky back in middle school at a summer band camp.  She wanted to be my friend and I thought I was too cool for band kids (oh the irony).  I met Sterling at the USU Marching Band the fall of 2007 when I was the photographer for the band...although just recently have we actually gotten to know each other.

I had so much fun, and my ego was bolstered to the point that I had to duck to come through doorways...I loved it so much that I might do another giveaway someday.  But feel free to comment about your love for me anytime you want.  (Can you tell I didn't get much sleep last night?)

500!! Time for a giveaway!!

This is post number 500.  Crazy huh?  It all started here, on November 28, 2005.  I've had quite a few highs and no shortage of lows over the years...and I'm sure there will be many more highs and lows to come.  I kept hoping that by the time number 500 rolled around I'd have some HUGE news to share, something worthy of a 500th post, but since I got nothin' you get somethin'!  (Because sometimes your kind words were what got me through the day)

Here's what you get:

You can choose either the Scentsy Set:

(click on the pic to see detail)

(Daises Full-Size Warmer, Toasted Apple Butter Room Spray, Black Raspberry Vanilla Travel Tin, Snowberry Car Candle, and four Scentsy Bars...one for each season: Sweet Pea Vanilla, Havana Cabana, Falling Leaves and Christmas Tree)

Or the Making Memories Set:

(click on the pic to see detail)

(HOME Wall Word Kit, defined vellum stickers, 9x9 and 6x6Boho Chic paperstacks, heart, star and circle vellum tags, brass label holders, Heidi uppercase and lowercase rub-on alphabets, Family clear creations, 2 BoHo Chic trims and several small rub-on word packets)

I figure since blogging is sort of narcissistic (who am I kidding, it is the definition of narcissistic) I want you to feed my ego.   

Here's how to enter:

-Tell me your favorite of all my blog posts.  It can be one that made you laugh, or got you all teary...tell me why you liked it.  If you're a new reader, here are some places to start: adoption, struggles with infertility, kitties, on being accident prone, family

Extra entries (each entry must be left in a separate comment...I want my Blackberry to go crazy notifying me of all the comments I get...remember?  You're feeding my ego.)
-Tell the story of how we met
-Follow this blog
-Join our adoption group on Facebook

If you're already following the blog, just leave an extra comment that says "Already follow your blog", same thing with the facebook group.

I'll accept entries until Tuesday April 13th at NOON central time.

Make sure when you enter you tell me which set you want...

Making Memories or Scentsy.

Good luck!

(And if you could, keep us in your prayers this weekend.)

Pffeww! and a high five and a wahoo! and a huh? and a giggle

After 2 different trips, 7 hours waiting, 12 lines stood in, 5 forms filled out, 65.88 miles driven and $284.00 paid Nathan and I are now licensed, stickered and plated Chicago residents!  Hopefully the second background check won't take as long and we can still apply for that grant...the deadline is next Friday.

Insurance stuff is coming along...the rental place said they never got the payment, the insurance company swore they sent it...and we were caught in the middle.  I finally got mean and yesterday morning got a phone call from the manager at the rental place telling me the money would be refunded by the end of the day.

As a completely unrelated aside...my next post will be my 500th post!  I think I might just have to give something away...so stay tuned. :)

Oh, yesterday evening I was mopping the floor in the kitchen (preparing for our big weekend!!) and the phone rang.  I saw it was the number for our condo which meant someone was trying to be buzzed into the building.  I knew we weren't accepting company, but sometimes a neighbor will get locked out.  I answered and it went like this:

Hello?

Can you let me in?

Who is this?

Come on, I locked myself out.

What apartment do you live in?
### (which is our apartment number)
Uh huh...What's your name?

Nathan.

Right, {smug laugh} nice try buddy.

I hung up and turned to tell Nathan the funny story about how someone was trying to use his name to get into our building and saw he was no longer sitting on the couch...and that Besta wasn't on the rug.

Have I mentioned that the condo intercom distorts voices?


I am not a bad wife.

{deep breath} {deep breath}

Today started out so nice and ended quite the opposite.

Nathan had the day off and the weather was absolutely perfect so we got up and made our first visit of 2010 to the dog beach.  Besta was beyond excited.

We came home, had lunch and were trying to decide what to do for the afternoon.  I jumped online to check our bank account and noticed a very strange charge.  It was a hefty sum charged by a rental car agency.  We haven't rented a car since my car accident back in November.  We had to pay a little amount (We opted to pay for the $5 extra per day so I could drive the Mercedes :) Can't blame me, right?) and the other insurance company was paying for the balance (their driver was at fault).  Well, after some digging, we found out that the other insurance agency didn't pay the bill (in fact, they haven't paid ANY of the bills...grrrrr) so Enterprise charged us... they had our card on file from the little payment we made.  Ya.  So I got on the phone to get a hold of the adjuster assigned to my claim to get to the bottom of it...we shouldn't have to foot the bill for that rental.

While I was on the phone for that, our adoption case worker called us.  Our background check came back - and it failed.  Seriously.  It will be an easy fix...well, relatively so.  Remember how I said that Illinois requires all hopeful adoptive couples to be licensed as foster parents with DCFS?  That's where we hit our snag.  In order for us to pass that step we must have IL driver's licenses and license plates.  When we moved last year we chose to keep our Utah plates and licenses for several reasons.  Cost was the big one.  It was cheaper for us to keep them in Utah.  In Chicago, if you have out of state plates you don't need city stickers...which can cost $120...ON TOP of your normal registration fees.   In order for us to move forward with the adoption we HAVE to get approved with DCFS, which means we would need to switch over our stuff.   So we hopped online, found the nearest DMV and got ready to go.  We quickly gathered all the stuff we thought we would need (social security card, military id, current Utah license, a piece of mail proving our Chicago residence, birth certificates, title for the car, registration and proof of insurance) and took off.  We walked in and got in our first line.  We handed over all the stuff for our driver's licenses, a lady checked it and handed it back, with a number....and then we waited.  While we were waiting we learned that they do not accept Visa as payment (seriously?  They take MasterCard, Amex, Discover, CHECK?? but not Visa??) and we would have to take a written test.  Nathan gets called up first, his lady seems to be pretty friendly.  I was not so lucky.  My guy refused to transfer my license without proof of my marriage.  Seriously?!?  My current Utah license has my married name on it, my social security card has my married name on it...I pleaded with him...told him I'd been married 8 years.  He wouldn't budge.  So I have to go back tomorrow.  In the mean time Nathan had finished his first stage of paperwork with the nice lady and had been cleared to go take the test BUT we had to pay our fees first and we don't have a MasterCard and didn't have enough cash on us.  So we left the building, walked a half a block down the street to an ATM,  pulled cash out and walked half a block back to the DMV.  (Again...seriously, NOT Visa?!?)  While Nathan took his exam I went to the other side of the building to get our plates.  I didn't have all I needed...I needed proof of purchase for the vehicle.  I asked if he was sure...all we were doing was transferring our plates to a new state.  Yep...proof of purchase (Seriously??!?)  I went back to wait for Nathan and we finally got out of there about 5:30. 

Waiting at the DMV.  We're smiling because we'd just sat down.  
If we had only known what lay ahead...

Now I'm sitting at home, listening to the thunder (that is scaring Besta) and taking long, deep breaths.  I am tired of jumping through all these hoops.  I had been feeling ok about adoption lately...even a tad bit excited...but today made me {hate} it a little.  Not the miracle of bringing a child into our home, but the crazy hoop jumping...made even crazier by our involvement in the military and our residence in Illinois.  

AAARRRRGGGHHHHHHHH!   

Ok, I feel better now...at least until tomorrow when I return to the gates of hell...a.k.a. the DMV.  Hopefully our claims adjuster calls back tomorrow about my accident stuff...I don't want to have to get mean.

Visitors of the Minnesota kind

Last weekend Nathan's sister Janus and her hubby Grant and their daughter Alexis came for a quick visit.  We had a good time, but I didn't take many pictures.  So all these are borrowed from her.  You can see her post about the visit HERE.

We visited the Jelly Belly Factory.  Janus was brave enough to try the skunk spray jelly bean.  Poor Janus, she smelled like skunk spray for hours.

We got to be a part of the Three Wheeler's maiden voyage on the L.  Janus thought it smelled like pee.  I thought it smelled pretty good...well, for the L. 

 The second day they were here we got all the way to the Museum of Science and Industry and saw this line for tickets.  We didn't stick around to wait in it.

Nathan found this outside the museum.  He loves R2D2.  Janus thought it was a garbage and threw her gum inside.  We had a nice chuckle over that. 

We waited in line for popcorn at Garretts, we visited the American Girl store, we ate sushi (Alexis did too!! Go Alexis!!), walked a ton, had sundaes at Ghirradelli.  We also did all the tourist stuff in Millenium park.  The Bean, Crown Fountain, the funky Chinese art, etc, etc.  I thought I'd hop up on top of this ledge for a cool picture...turns out I lack the upper body strength.  Nathan tried to help me, much to the amusement of any passers by.

And although they were the visitors, I had a "First" on their trip.  My first authentic Chicago Dog.

Now I have had plenty of hotdogs in my day...I love a good BBQ'd dog with ketchup, relish and onions.  But I had never been brave enough to try an authentic Chicago dog.  What's on it?  An all beef frank, onion, neon green sweet relish, mustard, tomato slices, a pickle spear, a couple pickled peppers...all topped with celery salt and thrown in a poppy seed bun.  SO YUMMY.  I don't know why I was scared, hotdogs this way are incredible!  (Don't believe me?? Come visit and we'll take you to Poochies...you'll see)  Oh and this picture - the hotdog picture is the only one of these that is mine.  Yep.  Family came to visit and I snagged a picture of a HOT DOG.  What can I say, I think food is pretty. :)

Anyway, back to the visit.  The last night they were here we went to our storage unit and pulled out my barbies.  (Yes I still have all my barbies!)  Alexis, Janus and I then had fun dressing them up and brushing their hair.  I think Nathan and Grant were surprised at how fast their wives regressed to a pre-teen state.

 It was fun to have them here, we laughed a lot, ate even more.  Can't wait til next time!

Scentsy - April

Each month Scentsy rolls out a new warmer and scent, available at a discount for only that month.   I decided that I'm going to start posting here to show off the new warmers and scents. As always, you can go to my website anytime and purchase any Scentsy stuff you want.  It will get sent directly to you...and there is no minimum to do an order.  If you like one of the warmers of the month - act fast.  As of late they have been selling out pretty quick.

The Warmer for the month of April is called ABC's.  It would be a good gift for teachers (Teacher Appreciation Week is May 3 – 9, 2010), or if you are a teacher...get one to spoil yourself! :)

The scent of the month is Red Candy Apple.  The description of the scent: "Red Candy Apple is bursting with Macintosh apples, red raspberry jam, sweet red berries, and strawberry milk, with notes of brown sugar, taffy and cotton candy" 

All of the money I make through Scentsy helps fund our adoption.