September

It’s been awhile but we did go to Dragon Con.  We had an absolute blast with our friends.

We did discuss what happened in TN and then we moved on.  It was the best medicine!

We went to concerts, Balls, and a rave.  We had our Best. Con. YET!

We can’t wait until next year! Our tickets are bought and another of our friend’s from Seattle is also planning to go.  We’ve asked her to go the last couple years but it hasn’t worked out so next year should be great as well.

The unfortunate issue is Don picked up a cold and on our flight home it started to manifest.  A couple days later I was down for the count.  His was a head cold of a few days with a slight cough that cleared up within 5 days.  I got the lung infection of Bronchitis that had me way under.  When I first got sick I thought ok in a few days it’ll go as his has; that didn’t happen ( I haven't been sick like this in years - a couple days of sniffles but not down and out sick like this was!).  I got the cold and it started on day one as a sore throat and a head cold and by day two it was in my lungs.  I waited it out with over the counter meds and lots of sleep for a week but then it was clear it was more than a cold.  I went to the clinic and the doctor was worried I might have a severe case of Phenomena.  Luckily my X-rays showed it was just Bronchitis. A bunch of prescriptions later I was sent home.  So for the next couple weeks I took my steroids, Antibiotics, inhaler, cough medicine, and cough syrup and I was beginning to feel better.   So that was my September. 

I was fortunate to be better and was able to make my friend’s wedding.  I was thrilled to be a part of her special day.

Now it’s October and it’s a reminder that soon we’ll be a part of the National Last minute Hospital List for our agency.  Honestly I thought we’d have the paperwork by now but I guess it’s a couple weeks out so there is still time for the letter to arrive.

What is the last minute Hospital List?

It simply means we’re on the list for all the areas our agency is involved in (meaning where they have offices). It’s really just a finite second chance because they really don’t have that many last minute placements but it is something better than nothing and a hope for a future of becoming parents.

So I await that letter so we can be included in Last minute hospital situations. We are also not far off from the top 50 longest waiting families so again more hope of even more exposure in our wait.

Until then I look forward to friends and family days (yesterday was a friend game day and it was 13 of us so I can't wait to see how it happens the next few months!) and look forward to the holidays this year.  My brother and his family moved home in August so I can’t wait to spend it with them after 4 years away. I’ve really missed them and am looking forward to this year. Today they were supposed to come visit but something happened and they couldn't so hopefully soon they can come visit.

Our agency site

We Survived a Failed Placement

So I’m starting this post off negatively but if you’ve wondered where we are it’s because we had a failed placement and it's taken me awhile to process it and write it out.  

Now before we get into the thick of it let’s talk basics.  Back in May we signed with a second agency and after a possible match, which I was dragging my feet on and then on day 3 the agency said wait, whoa don’t send in the match fee, we moved on and would eventually match with K. (yes another K name).

Now K was a quiet but an honest young lady.  Our attorney however put a doubt in our mind and it would cause some chaos that I’d maneuver in just a few very stressful days but it worked out.

We matched the end of May and by June I was working the attorney circuit looking for an attorney to represent her and I planned to go out and meet her and her son.  It was an awkward meeting because again she was a quiet person and I’m not good with small talk.  However, I found her to be sweet and her son to be a typical 3 year old.  I enjoyed meeting and spending time with them both. 

So we were texting everyday or every few days and things seemed to be progressing in a natural way.  She was working on getting herself in a better position once birth and placement happened and we were trying to make sure she had what she needed as she needed it.

Now the rub is; looking back; that she hinted at the things that would eventually undo our adoption plan.  Her family was happy she had an adoption plan they didn’t support her at all.  She used to be close to mom until….(not important). So ya the signs were there but I didn’t catch them per se.  I think I instinctively got it because I was so guarded but it wasn’t there at the time in the fore front. They always say in adoption literature and blogs if the family isn’t supportive it’s a BIG RED FLAG! Because 9 out 10 times they come forward at the hospital and offer support thus screwing the adoptive parents who’ve been supporting them for months as was the case with us.

Incoming RANT: 

Oh how I’d love to be able to get restitution on what we spent on support but you know it’s not an adoptive family friendly environment, in fact we have zero protection in these matters.  Honestly we’re the ones taking the financial and emotional risks (and the damn scammers that come with that – hello emotional trauma; again no recourse – WTF!!!!).

Ok Rant over and I feel better, moving on…..

So what happened in our case? Well the very simplified version is she asked for a day alone to reflect and have time to which we agreed.  Our friends were coming into town that day from out of state so we’d only planned on stopping in to visit her and the baby in the morning and then heading out.  She however then sent the late night text the night before asking for a bit of space so we obliged.

We met our friends at a restaurant/pub in the area where we were staying.  We had talked of going to the zoo or maybe visiting another local historical home.  Unfortunately while my friend and I were outside I got a text asking me to come by first thing in the morning that she needed to talk to us but everything was ok. I showed my friend and said that’s it it’s over she’s going to parent.  My friend the forever optimist said no, you don’t know that, just keep the faith.  I knew.  She’d call less than 10 mins later to tell me that she couldn’t do it and that she was only doing it because she didn’t have support and now she did and she just couldn’t go through with it. So bottom line is mom abandoned her when she was pregnant and homeless with a 3 year old but as soon as baby was born in the hospital no way could baby go to a family outside theirs.  

Now It actually happens quite often but if I’d read the signs properly I’d have had those questions answered before we ever got to delivery. There were other signs, some quite blatant but I’m not into the details just the basics here.  Mind you during this time my mom is excitedly asking me if she can post pics and info and I keep her at bay for 2 days and then this happened and I texted “She is going to parent” ya that’s not how I wanted this to go.  As much as I wanted it to be right, it wasn’t.  I wish her the absolute best, honestly. She is a good, kind-hearted, and loving lady.  She has 2 boys to raise and I do hope that offer of support for her and the kids continues to be there for her. I will never not think of her and hope she is doing well.

Now the best part is we have friends in with their son from out of town visiting when I get the phone call.  Don, our friend’s hubby and their son are off playing games and I want Don to have a good day.  I walk off to the bathroom not once but twice during our visit to cry in a stall.

My friend agrees not to say anything and buys me a shot of vodka (so glad to not be driving!), which woo took me a few sips to finish.  We then decide to go downtown and walk around (mind you my friend knows we’ll be leaving and wants us to see the city we’re in before we go.  Also note Don doesn’t know yet!).

After our trip to downtown Nashville to shop, walk, goof off, and eat, they drive us back to our car and follow us back to our friend’s place where we are staying.  It wasn’t until they left that I told Don what had happened 10 hours earlier.  We talked and he went to bed, I then went downstairs and into the family room of our friends where we are staying and told them.

Now I have no idea how I was able to keep it together for 10 hours before telling Don but I did because I wanted him to have a good day with our friends and not think about the adoption.  He even said why didn’t you tell me and I told him X and X were here and I wanted us to have good memories and a great visit.  Mind you we normally take a trip to Atlanta for Labor Day so we’d cancelled that because hello, becoming parents is top priority, but ya now it’s cancelled and we aren’t. So the trip home was rather somber as we explained where the baby was.  We had a car seat and stroller combo and a newborn sleeper that had to be shipped home.  I even had my carry on pulled by TSA because of baby stuff (my carry on had our diaper bag with clothes, diapers and wipes) and we had no baby; ugh!(side note the guy was super nice he was just doing his job).  However the best part was we could’ve taken the baby stroller/car seat combo and baby wrap back for a refund but we chose to bring it home as a symbol that we will be parents! We both still know we’ll be parents but we’re waiting for the right person to come along and make it happen for us and expand our family.

The planets must have aligned because next week we are going to Dragon Con and meeting our friend’s.  We definitely need this trip to be ourselves outside this process. We found new cheap flights and free hotel which is beyond abnormal (bye-bye points we’ve spent you all and then some).  I’m super excited because just last week we couldn’t go and I was a bit mopey.  I’m super excited to go even though half our friends can’t make it.  We’ll have a great time with our friends who experienced our heartbreak with us and helped us through that. Did I mention I'm super excited!

So where does that leave us now:

We are coming up on 3 years live in a short few weeks and we’re only 8 families out of the top 50 with our agency, which means the 50 longest waiting families so maybe this is where we are meant to be. Who can say for sure?  I do know that yesterday I opened Instagram and I saw this posted by a friend and fellow long waiter in this process, who has recently adopted, and it really struck me so I asked if I could share it.

So that's it we've survived a failed placement and are so very lucky for our support network. We have adjusted and are moving on in the right direction. Hopefully our meant to be is just around the corner.

It's Summer

Wow it's July and I haven't posted in quite awhile.  Life has been crazy busy since our last post in May.

So after our trip to Florida we settled back into the daily life, Don going to work and me working on the adoption stuff, pretty much non-stop.  We did a bunch of things around the house to keep busy and Don helped me in the garden to weed the overgrowth.  Sadly I've been busy and the weather hasn't cooperated as much as I'd like so the weeds are back and I have a ton of work to finish up out there.

In June I flew to Nashville and met up with some friends I'd never met.  I know sounds strange but I've "known them" about 9 years thanks to World of Warcraft and we were finally able to meet up in real life.  Now, I've actually met one of their sons 2 years ago in Atlanta for Dragon Con and Don has met 2 of their sons who also played with us so I wasn't worried. Some of our best friends we met through our guild in game.  Of course it was over the course of years before we agreed to meet anyone but they have become some of our best friends and being able to see them is always great! I even drove to Knoxville for a few days to spend time with my best friend. Don was on a business trip but was able to drive from Ohio down to TN on Thursday and we stayed with our friends then left in the morning to catch flights out of Nashville.  It was really a great trip.

Summer upon us we planned for our friend and his son to come for a visit.  That is always a great time over the fourth having them here.  I really wish we saw them more than 2-3x a year but it's life and we all move to where we live and work.  We're lucky to still be in active (not just Facebook friends kind of contact) contact over the years we've known each other.  We had hoped to stay here for the fourth of July and then drive to Oregon with them but it didn't work out.  You see we'd won a weekend stay at the beach through a charity auction last year and we needed to use the time. Unfortunately, his Son is in swimming so they couldn't go due to his matches but we did the weekend following their return home.

 Cruising the lake on the boat

  Jack loves being on the boat - it wasn't warm enough to swim but still a fun day

 The 4th of July BBQ

One of the fireworks

The drive to the beach on the Oregon coast was interesting.  It's a part of Washington and Oregon we don't usually see.  In fact we've never been to the Oregon coast so it was fun to see and visit.  The beach was great albeit cold.  We unfortunately had a weekend where it poured cats n dogs 90% of the time.  We did get a respite on Saturday morning and took the opportunity to walk the dogs down the trail to the beach and then along it.  Two miles later we were back at the house just in time as the rain re-started with a fury about 30 minutes later. We decided to leave on Sunday instead of Monday so Don could get a full days work in and boy that was a drive home.  The roads in and out are two lanes so we get 30 minutes past Astoria and then we're at a stop.  Accident Road closed the vehicle says as it passes our parked vehicle.  Ah ya ok so how long to wait? Well we debated the wait and turned around. Needless to say our 3 hour drive turned into 6.  It was a long day and made me glad we'd come home a day early.

 Our view from the beach house

 I'd say they loved their beach walk

 The trail to the beach

 Little beach shrine on the trail

 When we said we were going home - ya they didn't want to go

As soon as the car was packed (mind you it had been raining) this was our last view from the house

Next month we are flying to visit friends in Atlanta and will hopefully hear that their foster daughter is their adopted daughter (meaning mom has signed in front of a lawyer so the adoption process can begin).  Things are in motion but it's Foster Care Adoption so anything can and has happened to them.  Crossing our fingers this one comes to pass.
Happy Summer to All!

Thanksgiving trip 2015

Every year we go home to visit for Thanksgiving.  It can seem complicated but we’ve gotten used it.  We drive down and stop at our friend’s place in the Sacramento area and stay the night then the following day with his family and in-laws (although not this year, we'd stay on our way home).  We always enjoy that and the dogs love playing with his son and running around the back yard. We then leave (usually) on Sunday morning and head to our hotel where we unload the car and then head over to his parent’s house.  We usually eat dinner and hang out for a couple hours then head back to our hotel for the night.

Monday usually has us spending the entire day with his parents.  We go over for breakfast and talk, hang out, eat dinner and watch a movie or two.  Tuesday and Wednesday are usually my family days.  Each year is a bit different based on when my aunt isn’t in school.  This year though, I went to spend a few hours with my dad on Monday while Don took his parents to the mall so his mom could get a new cell phone. My dad had a stroke in October and I needed to see how he was doing. I’ve been extremely worried about him since I found out but he didn’t want me to come down to help out.  I’m so glad to say he is coming along although nowhere near 80%+ but improving daily. He can sign his name and has a leg brace to help him walk and stay upright so I’m happy to see him improving and pretty quickly. Monday is also the day I found out my mom entered Kidney failure due to the massively strong antibiotics they’ve had her on for MRSA (antibiotic resistant staph infection) after her back surgery back in October.  I guess you could say October was a bad month for me.  Mom is going on two weeks in the hospital but will hopefully be home (although still on an IV with antibiotics) by this weekend.  When we spoke today she’d had dialysis and was in pretty good spirits, as good as you can be; that is when the whole right side of your body is bruised and sore from head to toe on one side and you’re still recovering from a fusion of your spinal cord.

So Tuesday had us going to his parents for breakfast and then meeting my dad and aunt for dinner.  We went to Outback and enjoyed dinner and the company.  Our visits with them are always so short.  I wish they were available all day but between work and school it isn’t possible.  We got to spend about 4 ½ hours hanging out together.  I did talk to them every day we were there though.

Wednesday was breakfast at his parents then we went to see my mom’s brother.  This year we went out to Mexican instead of doing a BBQ which was really good.  We went back to his place after dinner for lots of pinball and music and Don and he had a cigar. The only time Don has anything like that is the one time a year we go visit my uncle, it’s their tradition in the back yard or open garage. We met a neighbor of his and stayed way longer than we normally do but we were having a great time talking and competing for high score of the night.

Don playing my Uncle's Southpark pinball game 

Thursday we were going to try and have breakfast with my dad and aunt but it didn’t work out and instead got a phone call for us to come to Don’s parents. So we ended up at their place 4 hours early so Don set up their new printer and showed his mom how to do things with her new phone.  Later his uncle and his long time girlfriend arrived.  We would go to a restaurant late that afternoon for dinner.   I have to say it was a lot of food, good eats, and a great price per person for the quality. His uncle and girlfriend left for the couple hour drive home from the restaurant and we went back to his parent’s house for a couple hours. We called it fairly early that night so we could all get a good amount of rest.

Come Friday morning we were headed to meet up with a CA co-worker of Don’s for lunch in Irvine and a tour of Blizzard Entertainment.  Come to find out her husband works there and when he offered the tour we jumped at the chance.  We were able to find a Petsmart hotel close by to the restaurant and we made an appointment for the dogs to go to daycare while we went to lunch and did the campus tour.

I have to say I wasn’t 100% sure what we’d see outside the Orc statue out front with the flags and a bunch of buildings where people work.  We were pleasantly surprised all the statues were in place and well lit so we could take pictures. We got to see the library and holy cow so amazing! So many games, books, and other cool things to check out if you work there. I’d spend a lot of time in there playing games in the evenings if I worked there. We also saw an office from outside as we entered a building and we thought it was the store.  Nope, someone’s office with so many cool things we just wanted it to be a store (they don’t have a physical store only online). The control room was cool to see but no pictures allowed then we moved on to the timeline of Blizzard and the games they released.  It needs to be updated for the last couple years but still nifty to see all of them in one chart. The museum was cool to see, they have original art work, statues, the armor they give to long time employees, a display case of items given out each Christmas to employees and also fan art. We then got a tour of where he works.  Really cool IT dept. which is saying something.  After the tour we talked a bit then headed back to pick up the dogs from daycare.

 Welcome to Blizzard

One the core values placed around the statue

one section of the library

Only 6 hours and 14 freeways later we’d arrive back at our friend’s place for the night.  We got in fairly late but were staying the next day.  Saturday was pretty chill (and chilly!); we played World of Warcraft, watched a movie, and then played Talisman.  His son was able to have us help with addons he wanted for WoW and we had a lot of fun together playing games. 

Sunday was a 5am wake up so we could get ready, pack the car and leave for home. It would be an extremely long and cold day. I don’t think the temp from CA to WA ever got above 36 degrees.  In fact it was 28 degrees when we left Sacramento and 25 degrees when we got home to our place in WA. What was supposed to be an 11 ½ hour drive turned into 14 ½ one and we concluded we’re never leaving on Sunday again.  Thank goodness we made it to Oregon in time to listen to the football game on the radio to break up the monotony of the drive. Although the commentator’s were blah and we couldn’t really hear what was going on half the time (goodness guys take a breath you don’t have to keep talking over every play about whatever) it was a good game to listen to.

All of us were so glad to finally be back home, even if it was much later than we expected.  The cats were thrilled to see us and we them. Our brother in law took great care of them and the house while we were gone.  Hopefully next year we have a child to show off to the family during our trip down.

Here’s some pictures of our Blizzard tour and trip down south for Thanksgiving:

 Pets are allowed at work so this section of grass has been set aside for human use

 My happy boys!Dad turned on the compressor so we went to the car for a few minutes

 The internal safety poster mascot is Medimurk the Murloc

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this Diablo sign

                                                 

 Tyrael

 Tracer

 The one and only Horde Chopper

 Don with Grommash

 Sword is 5 years with Blizzard and Shield is 10 years (Arthas mask is 20 years)

 one piece of the fan art in the museum

My guys all snoozing after a long day

Dragon Con is coming soon!

I can’t believe in less than two weeks we’ll once again be in Atlanta for Dragon Con.  This year everyone is able to make it and it’s going to be a blast being all together again and the bonus is we were all able to find rooms in Downtown this year instead of the airport, no more 1 hour commutes in by transit or expensive taxi rides.  Granted we aren’t staying in any of the big 5 hotels but then for the cost of one room you need 6+ people to a room in order to afford it, so no Thanks.  We don’t spend much time in the room anyway so why a big fancy over-priced room when you can use that money to buy cool things.  I’m hoping our room has a fridge and kitchenette this year so we can store some food in there and skip some of the lines for food and have more time for panels, games, shopping or photo taking. Our original room did but I goofed and booked the wrong dates so not sure what kind of room we’ll have after we realized the mistake and changed to the correct dates.

The other thing I’m excited about is our long time friend from California is flying to Seattle the day before and will be going with us this year. I’m glad he’ll get to meet our other friends from Georgia, Tennessee, and Alabama. Don may actually get to play games this year (which never works out other years we’ve gone) with Kevin going.  I’m hoping the panels list comes out in the next few days so we can start planning on what we must see; we usually only make 1 or 2 panels a day because of the line up times.

Every time we’ve gone I’ve always been a shorts and T-shirt girl but I was talked into dressing up this year and I’m working on that costume now.  We had talked about doing Steam punk this year with a couple of our friends but I couldn’t come up with anything I liked so my Cosplay friend suggested a character based on something I was watching and it all clicked.  Maybe next year I can go for Steam punk if I can find things I like this year to use with it.

Someone Don works with also goes with a group of his friends and this year he and my friend Lara are doing a costume together.  I can’t wait to see how that turns out for the Friday Night Archer party. Don and I talked about dressing up on Saturday since it’s the big day for costumes but his co-worker made a good point that we’d be constantly interrupted while we tried to hang out with our friend’s costume watching so we will dress up Friday instead. 

So this is the way to end the summer for us and we do it every year.  Maybe next year we will have our family and be able to introduce our child to our friends.  

All of us last year being goofy for the picture

The Best Bits

I haven’t written in awhile but the best bit about adoption for us has been the community of support.  How great is that no matter where in the world we live we are united by a common thread. It doesn't mean our stories are the same or that our adoptions are anything but unique unto themselves but we all benefit from others experience.

We are still waiting to adopt and because of the community I am more able to have more positive days than not.  Sure I still have those moments of frustration and anxiety but the community rallies round and lifts my spirits. It will happen for us and I hope to one day be that support and guidance from the other side of adoption just as many are to me now.

I will leave you with a picture of us having a blast with friend's in New York.

Italy - part 1 - Venice

Our flights to Europe

We left Seattle early Tuesday morning and headed to Dallas where we had a 5 hour layover then on to London. Once in London it was a mad dash through the airport to the pre-check before security where we had to be fast passed to get the security line or we’d miss our connection. We found our terminal and were lucky our gate was next to Starbucks where I grabbed one last coffee then onto the plane bound for Venice.

Venice

We arrived in Venice at noon on Wednesday, retrieved our luggage and headed to the express bus to the island.  We then took a ferry to the city center to find our hotel. It was pouring down rain and super windy in Venice, I don’t mean rain as we think of it in Washington, I mean the sky is gushing kind of rain.  

The wind and rain were crazy

Also, the “streets” of Venice are really alleys; at least they appear that way to us since we are used to wider streets, making it difficult to navigate to our hotel, even with Google maps.  We actually circled around the place like three times because it looked like a courtyard for someone’s house.  Nope it was actually a street with a canal dock to one end.  The hotel was a bed and breakfast called Palazzo Minelli and was a spacious double room.  Our friend’s were meeting us in Venice later that evening and we were sharing the room.  What was odd was the layout. When it was booked it just said double connecting room, which we thought of in terms of room connections in American hotels.  This one was 2 rooms; the front room had the front door and the back room had the bathroom.  The room also had the balcony in the front room and just windows in the back room.  Don and I took the front room and our friend’s took the back.  After checking in with the hotel, Don and I walked around, stopped by a café and grabbed a snack then headed out to take some pictures.  After awhile we were soaked (even with umbrellas) thanks to the wind and were freezing so went back to our room to relax, warm up, and wait for our friend’s to arrive. That’s when we’d fall asleep and they’d get stuck outside the hotel.  We felt so bad about that.  We had no intention of falling asleep and didn't hear our phones ring.  I finally heard the doorbell and it woke me up and we started down to let them in as they were coming up the stairs.  The door opened and they were able to come in out of the rain.  They settled in, dried off, and then we talked about dinner.  Don and I had passed a place earlier while walking around that we thought looked really tasty so we agreed to go there.  That would be the best meal we’d have in Venice at Hostaria da Zorzi on Calle dei Fuseri. Our waitress Elisa was great and we’d surprisingly see her again somewhere else on the trip. We’d go back and play charades on the iPhone since none of us thought to bring cards or dice to play games.

pictures from the room balcony which overlooked the canal

On Thursday, after breakfast in our room, we all went out to do some site seeing in San Marcos Square.  We went to the basilica and toured the rooms that were open; unfortunately the museum was closed that day. 

waiting in line to enter

Inside the treasury at the basilica

After the basilica we did a bit of shopping and found a place for lunch.  The most expensive meal we’d have and it wasn't that great but better than the place we’d find for dinner later that night.  After lunch we went to La Fenice to tour the opera house.  It was absolutely gorgeous and much larger than it looks.

the grand ballroom

 Ceiling of the theater

 The theater

The orchestra pit

 Me taking a picture of Don who was taking a picture of Jean and Harvey

The entrance

 After our tour we walked and found a supermarket, where we bought some amazing cheese, salami, and crackers for later then took everything back to the room, refreshed ourselves and went in search of dinner.  We settled on a pizza/pasta place that was awful! The food tasted like frozen microwave food, the wine was like battery acid, metallic and nasty. I wish I could remember the name so I could advise everyone not to go there. It was a waste of money for all of us.  The food in our room was what we’d eventually enjoy for dinner because we pretty much didn't eat what they served.  We played more games that night, using some Italian cards that the B&B had on hand, as well as more charades.

 On Friday, Don woke early and went to the Fish market to do some shopping.  The rest of us slept in and rested.  Don got back just as breakfast was being served so we all enjoyed that and then packed up to get to the train station for our trip to Rome.  None of us wanted to cart all our luggage back through the streets of Venice to the ferry so instead splurged on a water taxi to come pick us up at the B&B’s private canal dock.  Yes, it was completely worth the expense.  At the train station we went to a café to pick up sandwiches and drinks for the trip and we’d run into Elisa.  She also worked at the station during the day.  It was a pleasant surprise to see her again before we left Venice.

Water Taxi on the Grand Canal approaching the train station

Stay tuned for the rest of our trip (in parts) with pictures coming within the next week.

Chocolate Indulgence for the weekend

It’s the weekend and it should be a great one around here. This isn't really adoption related this week, except to say we hope to enjoy these types of weekends with our own child soon.

Our new flooring for downstairs and the stairs has arrived at the store this week and we’ll be going to pick it up tonight.  I’m so happy to finally rid myself of the carpeting soon.  It is going to be so much easier to clean, bye-bye daily vacuuming and weekly carpet cleaning and hello sweeper and mop. I’m looking forward to it being done but am not excited to move everything from room to room as we lay it. There is always a downside to DIY home improvement.  We won’t be able to begin working on it right away since the flooring must acclimate at least three days. The soonest we can start is next week and I’m not sure he’ll want to be laying flooring after work but we’ll see.

As for the rest of the weekend we’ll be going up to a friend’s place for the night. Our other friends we’re also going to come over but they've gotten sick so they had to cancel.  We usually bring food to share while we play games and I’m thinking I might make a Flourless Chocolate Cake this time.  It’s one of my favorite chocolate recipes and so simple with 4 ingredients.  It’s extremely rich so this small “cake” goes a long way. It’s from my Test Kitchen cookbook. If you're in the mood for chocolate give this a try.

 I use this instead of double brewed coffee for the recipe.  It's a nice compliment to the chocolate.

Have a great weekend everyone!