A perfect balance of a work and play weekend

We were so busy this last weekend but it was full of fun!

On Friday night we moved half the computer room and removed the carpet and carpet pad.  Then I tired removing the floor tack which was harder than it seemed so Don finished it up on Saturday Morning.  After that he realized we couldn't just floor part of the computer area and so shut down my computer to move it until we could get the flooring in.  Now moving things isn't a problem but not having internet was entirely different. Thank goodness for cell phones!

After moving things from the room we began laying the cork underlay and then the flooring. However at 11am our brother in law arrived to help transport a large unwieldy TV to the local high school who was having a Marching Band fundraiser for electronics.  We not only donated the TV but also some cash. Don was in band and I was in Choir so funding those in our local schools is important to us.

After all that was done we had to get ready and drive to our friends place for game day/night.  We usually stay over because of the time and distance. We had a blast.  i spent most of my time with our friends wife and 2 granddaughters, now I realize that the word grand daughter is frightening but our friend is 42 and has been a grandma since her 30's. The girls are amazing and we had a blast playing bubbles, my little pet shop, and catch with them while the "guys" (not everyone playing was a guy) played a strategy board game. We stayed the night as we usually do due to distance but it was great because the youngest granddaughter turned 3 on Mother's day this year.  So awesome to be there for her big girl day. We had to leave fairly early to begin laying the flooring in the computer area of the basement which we didn't think would take very long based on the first room we did.  Uh Nope, because of the first room it's taking considerably longer but we are almost done as of tonight.

 The girls having Auntie do their make up

The floor is coming together although still unfinished

So Sunday night was special because our friend's had 2 extra tickets to see Neil Diamond in concert and I totally wanted to go.  I grew up with my family, especially an aunt of mine, loving Neil Diamond. I can't say I know all his music but we had a fantastic time!  I still can't believe he is 74 years old and doing such an amazing performance. I bought my aunt a shirt as a surprise even though she's gone to so many of his performances.  I just want her to know when I think of him I think of her and how much I love her!

Really was an amazing weekend.

The theme this weekend is walking for #WASO so I grabbed some photos of where we walk.

In our neighborhood there are a ton of parks, about 10 in a 3 mile radius.  This includes kid parks and dog parks as well as combo adult/kid parks.  We live on a lake (not literally its 2 blocks away from the road we live on but we have a private access dock for boats plus swimming, etc.). However most of our parks include a portion of the lake in which to swim plus play grounds and even skate parks or tennis courts.  Our local dog park is all fenced in Lake Front so your canine companions can swim and run, along with picnic tables for the family to hang out. . Our Lake is actually man made and generates some of our power.  They fill it in the spring from glacial run off from Mt. Rainier and then in the fall/winter it is slowly drained for power.  So the picture you see is the lake beginning to refill for late spring/summer boating/fishing season after a full draining this past winter (which is unusual they usually only drain it by 2/3rds)

The boat loading dock

Last summer with our friend's son swimming in the lake

Today was a beautifully warm day and I had to update our fingerprints for our adoption clearances.  Once done and mailed though I took the boys for a walk in the larger park on our way home.  It is across from the lake with a large double baseball field, Skate Park, Infant Park, kid play equipment, snack bar, and trails for the dogs.  With school still in session and a work day it wasn't packed like normal so it was a nice walk without distraction for them.

 baseball field looking towards the kid play ground

 It's grass and we love to roll in it

 the skater park

 On the trail today

Playing at one of the local neighborhood parks

We walked the baseball fields then headed down one of the trails on the opposite side of the park. It was so much fun for them and a picturesque view for me. The best part of living just outside the city is the closeness of community, parks, our Doctors and schools.  We are very lucky to have the Montessori about 6 lots down from us, our Doctor at most a ¼ mile, along with the elementary school next door and our coffee shop, gas station, Dentist, and dry cleaners exactly 1 mile from home.  What I love is its all walk able.  I don’t have to have a car to get where we need to be. The bonus is in the summer you can also pick blackberries along the main routes of the neighborhood.  We love fresh wild blackberries.  The dogs will get right in and pick and eat their own berries as we pick some for ourselves.

I truly love where we live and can’t wait to share it with a child as a family, yet we’re close to both Tacoma and Seattle (30 and 45 mins.) to give them all the museums, fresh market, and city experience. I miss living in Seattle but at the same time I wouldn't trade what we have here.  I think it’s a fairly unique but fading life for a child.

Home projects in full force

I haven’t posted in a while but we’re here and busy with many different things, like finding contractors for work in the main part of the basement and for the backyard. I will finally get the yard fenced, retaining walls and an upper deck.  I’m super excited to run around with my dogs out back and play ball with them and our future child.  It’s a long time coming for all of us!

We've been very busy around here with home projects.  They sound so easy and simple weekend tasks but as most people know it’s the unknown that sets you back. Our flooring came in right before we left for Italy and just as we were going to start painting and laying that flooring in the first room, Don was called to Arizona on business then he drove to California to spend time and help his parents that weekend following his week away. His mom recently had knee surgery and his parents could use some help with clearing things out, cleaning a bit around the house, and just moral support. Thankfully all is well on that front and she is recovering wonderfully and his weekend there was a big boost to his parent’s morale.

So we again begin to think of painting and flooring.  The first step is to remove all items from the room.  Now this was our store room and Don’s craft room so lots of stuff to move into the main basement area, then came removing the carpet and carpet pad.  Now the carpet wasn't so hard to cut and remove but the carpet pad was a bear. Once that was up and removed we had to remove the nailed into the concrete foundation carpet tacks.  That was so much fun, NOT! We inspected and repaired the foundation including those many nail holes from the carpet tacks but only after scrapping and scrapping some kind of fiber glue from it.  Don’s quote of the weekend was “I feel like Cinderella!” I couldn't stop laughing.  I, too, had attempted removing that glue from the foundation and it WAS NOT EASY!  Once we had the foundation in order, Don painted the room and ceiling. 

The following day we began laying the new flooring which was by far the easiest part besides the knee and back pain from being on the concrete floor for hours on end.  It was like we’d moved into a new house once it was done.  Removing the ghastly steel blue carpet for bamboo flooring increased the lightness of the room a 100X.  We gave the floor a week to settle before starting on the cabinets the following weekend (this past weekend).  I have to say I love the new room. It’s bright, airy, and just what a basement room needs.

This is the best way to rest while working

Finished room is dog inspected and approved!

Today was spent figuring out where all the stuff we had in that room was going to go and then moving it.  That room is now going to be my craft room and boy oh boy do I have a lot of stuff to transfer over from my current room. The sewing, scrap-booking, paints, etc will be fun to reorganize though into the new cabinets.  My current craft space will get redone into a family game room. We will not only store our games and play them in there with company but it will also have a TV for video games and my exercise machine.  I’m kind of looking forward to having a TV to watch while I exercise and it’ll be nice to have all the games in one spot.  We moved all the stuff into its new home today and throughout this coming week we will begin moving the computers and office area furniture into the main room.  Each area getting set up as we move it so we still have online and general computer access.  Once we get that done we hope to begin removal of the carpet and installation of the new floor.  Since we previously painted and redid this area minus the floor and lighting it should be a fairly smooth and quick weekend project.

Is it negative or is it real?

The true value of an adoption blog is about being who you are in all the messy glory that entails.  Not every day is sunshine, rainbows, and unicorns. That said, I and others in the adoption blog community have been told our blogs are too negative and should add more fluff to make people happy; to entice expectant mothers to want to read more and possibly pick us to parent her child. I hope the expectant mom who reads this blog and picks us knows shes seeing us not fluff.

I’m all for being real.  I can’t and won’t live with faking myself, my emotions or our lives.  The emotions, all of them, in our journey are very real. The blogs I read are real people with real ups and downs and from all angles of adoption. I read birth mother blogs, hopeful adoptive parent blogs and blogs of those who have adopted domestically, internationally and through foster care.  They all have unique perspectives and I feel the more we read the better informed we are and will be when our time comes. 

I believe that showing yourself in your true light is how to get noticed by the right family. Open adoption is a difficult path for everyone involved and also extremely rewarding when the match is right.  I've watched it unfold for many happy families with our agency.  Is everything always perfect? No, but having the right match with the right expectant mom will be our gift.  I want that expectant mom to know us, the real us, when she chooses us for her adoption plan.  I have a great desire in maintaining that relationship for life because our child is for life.  In that desire I have to know and so does she, that we are right for that lifelong commitment. However that looks for her and us at match, placement, and as life goes on. We need to be flexible but committed with our agreed on plan which is built on trust and if we are true in our blog and other social media then when we talk she'll know it's truly us.

There are so many variables in people and it’s just as varied in adoption.  You never know what an expectant mom will be looking for or where she will see you so that online snap shot of who you are better be the people she meets.  

If our blog seems negative or depressing to you, try looking at it from a different perspective.  What may seem one way to you may be giving others hope or just the knowledge they aren't alone with how they are feeling that day. It’s also about our adoption journey no one else’s.  It’s as unique as everyone’s fingerprints.

Our blog is about processing our emotions whatever they may be. It’s about two people looking to have an open adoption. It’s about showing snippets of our daily lives from food, to pets, to vacations, to remodeling, playing games with friends or spending time with family. It’s about our dreams and holding on to hope, having faith it’ll happen, and writing about it. It’s about documenting everything while waiting to adopt to look back on. It’s about a future we long to have as a family of 3. 

After vacation adoption goals and our Anniversary

So we've been home a week and life is settling back in.  I know everyone says it but if you’re waiting to adopt, don’t wait to take vacations.  Even taking a break from adoption for a weekend can really help renew yours and your partner’s enthusiasm to become parents through adoption.

I really pushed back on taking a trip to Europe because I was worried about the time, costs, and what if’s on the adoption front.  I can say I’m glad Don just bought the tickets and made the arrangements as a surprise. While on vacation the topic of adoption, infertility and foster care was all discussed briefly with our friend’s then filed away to the back of our minds while we took in all the sites and culture.   I’m back with a new vigor and that’s a good thing.

The day we got home I received the email I hate getting.  “It’s time to renew your FBI clearances”, which also means our home study renewal is also quickly approaching. So I've printed our paperwork out and will start filling it all in to submit to our state social worker before June so she has time to come out and then write up our home study for Independent Adoption Center, our agency in California.  The paperwork itself isn't going to take long to fill out with this being the third home study I think we've gotten used to it and maybe the third time is the charm. What takes the most time is trying to rearrange schedules to get fingerprinted.  Our local office has one hour open in the morning and one hour in the afternoon but it isn't at easy times or days to make.  The other time consuming part of the renewal is the physical from our doctor that takes a minimal amount of time but it always takes her a week or two to write it all up to submit so we have to plan that accordingly. She also has specific days that she’ll do the adoption physicals making it a bit tough.  All of this however will get done in due time as it always does.

Today is our 19 year anniversary though so that paperwork can wait another day. I truly can’t believe we've spent the last 24 years together and have been married for 19. It honestly seems like yesterday we started dating, moved to WA, and got married. I’m lucky to have married my best friend and love him more with each day that passes.  I can’t wait for us to include children and become parents but until then we enjoy each other, our pets, and families. 

Live, Laugh, Love, get dressed up and have a food fight. :) 

I hope everyone has a great week ahead and maybe plans a little get away to take a mental break.

Italy - pt. 3 Rome, Ostia Antica, Nemi and home

Rome

Day 1

So we planned on going to Ostia Antica this day which was a short 3 stops on the train from where were staying so thought it was a good day to sleep in.  We get train passes, getting off at the stop for the ruins and it’s closed Monday.  We head back to the train and take the train to Rome and get off at the Colosseum.  Holy cow, it is so much larger than it appears in books, pictures, movies.  I was really impressed by the height of the walls and the labyrinth of the lower maze. 

 As you enter the Colosseum 

The Arch of Constaintine

Really incredible views, we stopped by a sandwich/gelato truck for a snack (yum Pistachio gelato!) and to debate going to Palatine hill or the Forum.  The Forum won out.  Absolutely incredible to see and to think you’re in the same church and walking the same roads as the Romans did over 2,000 years ago. 

 snack truck

 overlooking the forum

After the Forum we walked around Rome and found a group of young adults sitting around a fountain drinking and singing songs.  There was a café in the square so we sat down for food and drink and listened to them sing and laugh.

This was an early night for us as we got back to our hotel by 8pm and just relaxed, playing games and watching some TV before bed.

Day 2

The Vatican was our plan for day 2 in Rome.  We walked up and the line was enormous.  The wait was about 3 hours to get entrance tickets. There was a bunch of people trying to sell tours and after some discussion among ourselves it’s exactly what we did.  We ran over to be included in the 11:30 tour which was supposed to be a 2 hour tour but ended at 3 so 3 ½ hours.   We highly recommend doing the tour here rather than self guided or audio.  Our guide was incredibly knowledgeable about the history behind the pieces as well as the Church significance (or sometimes historical leader like Napoleon and Mussolini). I think the best part about our guide was that she took the extra time to show us the picture gallery which isn't usually on the tour.  Such awesome things housed here so if you plan on a tour of the Vatican try to get our guide (pictured below with blonde hair, holding a stick with a scarf tied to it) or ask your guide if they include it.

 Our guide

 The last Supper silk tapestry is HUGE and in the picture gallery

 one of the first stairways

 Bacchus 

The pine cone garden

 St. Peter's

 prepping for the Pope the following day

The Sistine Chapel was a surprise.  We passed through into the back area with benches on the walls and just sat and looked up and the images appeared 3D. Pictures aren't allowed or I’d have tried to capture the 3D like quality of the figures on the ceiling (the prophets and sibyls).

St. Peter’s Basilica is not to be missed.

After the Vatican we grabbed a sandwich to split and were “given gifts” by a man and woman sitting by the food truck who then asked for money.  We gave them some change and we walked away.  They want you to pull out your wallet so they can see it to pick pocket you later.  Don’t do it, better yet don’t accept the “gifts” say no thank you and walk away. Gypsies and pick pockets are the norm so be aware, don’t fall for the conversation.  PSA over.

From there Don wanted to find a particular store so we walked 2 miles (making it 7 miles for the day so far on top of the 9 miles walked the day before) only to find it had closed. As Americans living in the suburbs that walk an average of 1.5-2 miles a day my feet couldn't take anymore of the cobblestone streets so Don flagged a taxi to drive us to the Pantheon.  

Thank goodness for the taxi because we were a LONG way from the Pantheon which looked like it was built yesterday.  Really was stunning and as I sat in a pew Don went to look for the store in Piazza Navona that sold Chess sets.  

 Pantheon entrance

 directly under the open dome

 dome from the inside

He came back about 10 minutes later to take me down there.  It was beautiful and had cafes and shops.  I sat outside at one of the cafes on the corner ordering us some cheese and wine while he went to get that chess set.  He came back and a guy had settled in across the street to play music.  He started out with the Beatles Let it be and then also played Sting, Cyndi Lauper and many others.  He was really, really good.  We walked around the fountain while reading the history of the location and eventually I bought a Pasta maker to bring home.  It was then time to walk back to the Pantheon to catch a Taxi to a train station in Rome to meet up with everyone for Wendy’s birthday dinner.

my phone did a weird filter thing here

a picture of the Piazza Navona hanging in the restaurant that night for dinner with everyone

The restaurant was in Wendy and Jean’s old neighborhood in Rome.  I wish I remembered the name of the restaurant they had really good food there too.  I say that a lot but so many places cater to tourists so it’s just not good and overpriced. The baby wasn't feeling super celebratory so we all took turns trying to get her to sleep.  She finally fell asleep in my arms and holding onto Don’s finger which was so cute.

Someday it'll be us holding our own baby

Wendy, Emmy, Jean and Harvey

We got onto the last train of the night and went back to Ostia.  Our plan for the next day was once again to go to Ostia Antica.

Ostia Antica

The city, yes city of ruins was so vast we didn't even scratch the surface.  The place could take a week to see it all even if there tour guide of suggested paths.  The nice thing in these ruins is it’s more like a park.  While there are roads you can follow you can also just go off the paths and explore, unlike most other places which guide you along paths.  We spent a few hours here then went back to the hotel to meet up with everyone to drive to a mountain town called Nemi.

 The amphitheater

Nemi

So the drive to Nemi was interesting.  It’s just over an hour drive there and since Don couldn't get the town to come up on his phone he plugged in the destination as Lake Nemi.  Unfortunately, that’s exactly where the phone was taking us and by the time anyone spoke up we had long since passed the road up the mountain to the town.  Reroute on the phone took us up a very narrow old Roman back road to the town,  The whole while hoping it actually went through or we’d have to drive down the mountain in reverse because no way could a car turnaround let alone the van we in.  Luckily it did go through and we found parking.

Nemi is known for its wild strawberries which are small, sweet, and unaltered.  They were awesome! We had strawberry tarts with custard and cream and I wished I could eat like 6 of them.  They were so tasty.  They also had strawberry/blackberry granita that Wendy had and that was also good made out of the fresh berries.

 a panoramic view of the town

 Lake Nemi 

 Where we shopped

Jean, Wendy, Max, and Harvey

After eating we went to do some shopping.  It was the last evening we’d be in Rome so we bought some jarred goods and dried mushrooms to bring home.

After going to dinner we said our goodbyes and got back to pack the last few things we’d bought into our luggage.  We had an early start the next day to get the 4 of us back to the airport and return the rental car.
The flights home were 24 hours for us and even worse for Jean and Harvey who ended up staying an extra night in Rome then having to take a plane to Amsterdam where they were for about 18 hours. Sure hope they made the next flight back to Atlanta.