The Time Has Come

I didn't realize it would be quite that fat. I've read bigger books before, but not with five kids all running around and trying to school and stuff like that. But, I finished P&P this morning and now the fun begins.

Look at my sweet baby girl with her grandpa. Isn't she cute. Everybody all at once, ready? "AAAHHHHHHHHH!!" Thank you.

A Garden and Space

We went to see Discovery launch on Sunday. I'm such a dummy I forgot to email Leah and see if she could meet us there and get us any closer. I feel really blessed to live close enough to be able to just jump in the van and drive a couple of hours to see a space shuttle skip off into space. It's pretty cool. The couple next to us had a radio (great idea!) and so we got to hear all the radio transmissions and the countdown and everything. Next time though, I'm going to get with Leah. What a thrilling job that must be. She doesn't get as many cute little smiles and coos and hugs as I do though.

There was another couple there who were really enamored of my family. The Mrs. oohed and ahhed over Anna and counted my kids. "Four daughters?" she asked. "Nope, five," I told her. Her response was not the usual "my, you've got your hands full," or "you know how that happens, don't you" or "are they all yours" or any of the other dumb comments. Hers was, "Wow, then you are REALLY blessed, aren't you." I just love that. And I find that I get that kind of comment more than I get any of the others. And that is a double blessing.

The sunset was really beautiful that night. I was taking pictures of the sun going down over the city and some young guy comes up the the wall and starts snapping photos also. Then he says to me, as I'm still taking pictures, "It's a really beautiful sunset, isn't it" in this cheesy I'm-so-deep-and-artsy tone of voice. I didn't know if he was talking to me so I looked over at him and saw no one else, so I mumbled something like "...yeah...it sure is" and went back to taking photos. LOL. I don't get hit on very often. But I'm usually in close proximity to my handsome husband and at least one but usually five very cute daughters. I'm telling this story because it was really the first time in a long time that I've thought about how happy I am to have the security of Del in my life. No matter how bizarre my behavior, no matter how smelly I get from working in the yard, no matter what emotional roller coaster I'm currently on, he comes home to me every day and kisses me and tells me he loves me. I've never had to pretend to be something that I wasn't with him. I appreciate the steady love that has developed between us over the last ten years and look forward to seeing how it matures as we grow old together.

Okay, on to more surface things. Look at our garden. We've got four different types of tomatoes, corn, green beans, onions, cucumbers and a green and red bell pepper so far. There are a few other things we want to grow like sweet potatoes and maybe some other gourd so that we can have them in time to make baby food for Anna when she's six months old. The herbs we are growing are thyme, oregano, basil, marjoram, rosemary and parsley. And mint. It's been a lot of work and we plan to make it bigger for the fall planting season, but for now this is what we have.

Joanna Shrugged?

A couple of months ago Granny put out a challenge to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I seriously considered accepting the challenge because Granny has been around the block a few times and when she says "jump", I think the rest of us young 'uns should say "how high?" However I kept thinking about how I didn't even have time to read recipes, let alone books. I mean, I'm on chapter 5 or something like that in Pride and Prejudice. It's pathetic. I'm just too busy.

Anyway, I've been reading some of Michelle Malkin on a daily basis and they keep talking about "Going Galt". As I'm reading I keep wondering "Who is John Galt?" Turns out John Galt is from Atlas Shrugged. I have finally decided that I must read this book. The more of our money Obama spends the more I'm convinced we're headed down the slippery slope of Socialism and I think it's fascinating that Atlas Shrugged was written over 5 decades ago, before Obama was even born.

I checked Amazon and their copies of Atlas Shrugged are between $15 and $25. I thought I'd check out the library. You know what's funny? EVERY SINGLE COPY of Atlas Shrugged that the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative has is either checked out or on hold. I am now more convinced than ever that people are worried. People are downright freaked out. It's just hard to believe the main-stream media when they say that 60% of the country has a high approval rating of the Obama administration.

Okay, I will now try to get off of my soap-box. I promise to try to keep politics off of this blog as I know that's not really what it's for. I just had to mention that though.

On to more light-hearted matters: look what I got in the mail on Monday. I'm sorry I haven't posted or at least called you before to let you know. But look, they are in regular use. In the crib, for soothing, next to the diaper changing station, and even in the van. They are just beautiful! I always enjoy having a blanket and burp cloths from you because they are so pretty and they remind me of what a fabulous friend you are! Thank you Johanna and Lyn for the blanket and burp cloths.

Oh and one more thing. I tried the cookies. I was disappointed. Maybe it's because I put caramel chips and chocolate chips in them. They totally fell apart. And then I over baked the others so they are crunchy. They were incredibly easy to whip up though.

Anna is starting to sleep through the night. I put her down for the night at 8:40 last night and she woke up once at 3:23am, then didn't wake again until 7:30. I lay in my bed this morning wondering if she was dead. Isn't that awful. I think a lot about your friend; Anna is amost two months old. I snuck in her room full of trepidation. She was just laying there, wide awake staring at the wall. I snuggled her up good and prayed over her while I nursed her. Why am I so afraid to give her back to Jesus?

Last Wednesday (not yesterday) we went to see the manatees. It was pretty cool.

Picture Post

Marie is 20 weeks pregnant. Next Monday we'll find out whether she's having a girl or a boy. Some lady in Bed, Bath and Beyond breezed past us, pointed and said, "That's a boy." On the plate you will see a sandwich. That would be a peanut butter and pickle sandwich. Yeah, Marie is definitely pregnant.

Mom took Ella and Sarah to see Riverdance. I wish I could have gone, but do you know they'd charge for Anna to go. What a bunch of punks. The girls like Riverdance and have watched the video tons of times, but they call it "Irish Dance."

I have the most handsome husband in the world. I don't want to hear any arguments about this fact either. She's cute ain't she. NOT ME, the baby!

Here's the hawk that presides over our neighborhood. He eats all the squirrels. There's a moth in this picture. Can you find it?

Seen Around My House Today

Is there anything better than a nice hot steak and an ice cold Dr. Pepper? I don't think so.

I started sewing again.

How did one baby girl get so stinkin' cute?

34 weeks. Sigh.

You can't really see the bee in there. He tried to attack me and I beat him off ran away screaming like a baby.

One of our many aloe plants are blooming again. I think they're so pretty.

These pictures have nothing to do with anything except for the one of me. See that camera? That's my Christmas present this year. It's a digital SLR; something I've wanted for years. Can you say "distracted"? Yeah, I'm a little distracted.

Memories

When I was a kid living at the Mission I used to really dislike it that we always had home-made ice cream instead of store bought ice cream. We have these huge Mission-wide picnics and every family had their own ice cream maker. We'd go down to the picnic area and eat lunch while the ice cream was being made. The din from the ice cream makers was unbelievable. I remember poking sticks into red ant piles and playing tag to the tune of no less than four ice cream makers cranking away.

Anyway, I was watching a cooking show the other day and whomever it was doing the cooking was also making ice cream. I told Del that although I didn't really like it as a kid, I had fond memories of making ice cream now as an adult.

Del and I have an anniversary coming up. Our 9th, on Friday the 5th. So he got me an early anniversary gift so that I could share it with my parents before they head to Maui on Saturday. Check it out.

Glitches

Any time you do something important, there are bound to be glitches along the way. Especially if that important something involves multiple government agencies from two different governments! I am experiencing that in the adoption process right now! Last week we took inventory of where we were with that and what still had to be done. We were missing three key pieces of information: our police clearance report (criminal record report) from the state of Texas, the agency licenses for our dossier, and our home study report. Of these, the home study report is the most urgent because it is all that is holding us back from sending in our paperwork to immigration. The other two we don't need until our immigration paperwork comes back, but the agency licenses are troubling because we mailed in a large check for them June 2! On Thursday, I called the company for the agency licenses and left a message and e-mailed our social worker about both the agency licenses and the report. Then Saturday the criminal record reports came back in the mail!!! The good news is that the report accurately shows that we have no criminal history. The bad news is that on the official notarized reports, my birth date is typed wrong and Jerry's social security number is typed wrong! For both of them, they are off by one number. Oh, the frustration! I called the Texas Department of Public Safety today to find out what to do about it and tomorrow I have to fax the incorrect report along with the original request to them and they will send out corrected copies. Thank goodness! I was a bit concerned that I would have to mail everything back and get back in the three week que to get it back!

I also got a response from my social worker. She was on vacation last week and is typing our report this week. I guess I was on vacation the week before that, so I really cannot complain! She also said it is unlike the licensing agency to be so long in getting out the licenses so she was going to contact them. This afternoon, when I called the licensing agency they had just gotten off the phone with the social worker! Score one for doing what you say you will do! The lady that sends out the licenses told me that her mother had a heart attack four weeks ago and she is just getting back in the office. Well, I guess you cannot control heart attacks either. Her mother is doing much better and she will send out the licenses this afternoon! Whew!

So tomorrow I will fax the information back to the Department of Public Safety and send my birth certificate via Express Mail to the Illinois Secretary of State for certification and Jerry's to the Ohio Secretary of State for the same reason. Once those come back, they go to the Chinese Consulate (mine to the one in Chicago and Jerry's to the one in New York) and then they are done until they go to China!

In non-glitch news, I knit my first sock. It is actually called a sockabootie because it is like a cross between a sock and a bootie. It is the first thing I have ever knit in the round (with the stitches divided onto 4 knitting needles). I will have to take a picture of how that looks when I knit the second one, because I forgot to do that. But the first one is done!

Isn't it just so cute? There are a couple things about it that I don't like and hope to improve upon with the second one. If the second one is much, much better, I might even trash this one and do it again. It will depend on how perfectionistic I am feeling when I finish number two, because you know this is just project three out of about 12 I want to do for the baby! For the other two, see my other blog. (I am dividing knitting posts so that people don't get sick of reading the same thing over and over and over...)