Root Beer and a 9 year old boy

Those of you with boys or brothers might be able to guess where this might be heading, but bear with me anyway....

We took Perry out for dinner tonight. He recently completed his Master's degree and we decided to go out to dinner rather than go to the ceremony (an hour away from home on a school night).

I've gotten in the habit of taking the kids out to kid friendly places on Friday nights when Perry works. It's a fun way for the kids and I to end the school/work week and it's a special treat for them.

So...tonight as I'm picking up the kids, Perry calls to say he's also on his way home (YEAH...on a Friday!). On a whim, we decide to do his graduation dinner tonight. He wanted to go to Red Lobster since they have a LobsterFest right now.

Remember...I usually take the kids to a kid friendly restaurant (think Burger King, SteakNShake, Pizza Hut) so Red Lobster kicks up a slight notch.

They did FANTASTIC! We really had a wonderful time. Elise tried popcorn shrimp, Carson ordered crab legs and Perry got his monster lobster dish. We were all enjoying our food, having a great time, enjoying watching Carson work on his crab legs. You get the picture...Norman Rockwell type scene of a lovely family. I was truly so proud of the kids' behavior.

Then...

The root beer Carson was drinking kicks in.

And he belches.

Not just a little, polite burp.

Nope.

The kind only boys drinking root beer can do...deep, long and drawn out....he brought that puppy all the way up from his toes!

Loud enough for all those dining around us to hear.

People around us turned to look out of shock.

The baby in the next booth woke up!

I was mortified!

And even worse, we all burst into laughter.

Yup....we looked like total hoosiers!

Sigh, guess we'd better stick to fast food for now on...certainly easier to make a quick getaway!

Happy Anniversary, Omi and Opi!

Friday is Perry's parents' anniversary!

Happy Anniversary, Omi and Opi! We hope we have as strong and as long a marriage as you have! We hope you have a wonderful day and many more years of happiness!

7:15 pm

I just looked out the back windows and noticed that the sun is just now going down.

I love this time of year. The days are getting longer, the temperature getting warmer but the nights are still chilly. I went for a walk outside while Carson was at his guitar lesson tonight and it was wonderful.

Now if we could just get the rain to let up a bit, it'd be just perfect!

Countdown to challenge....one more day of laziness before I start this crazy challenge.

500 minutes

OK, this post has NOTHING to do with my kiddos.

A friend convinced me to join an 8 week challenge with her. The goal...lose some weight (10 pounds is my goal in that 8 weeks) and get back in shape in time for summer.

The catch...we have to log in 500 minutes of CARDIO exercise each WEEK.

That's 71.42 minutes a DAY!

I won't have any problem with the .42, it's the 71 I'm a bit worried about!

Where in the heck am I going to find time to do this?!?

I considered backing out, but I managed to get in shape and lose about 25 pounds last year. Then winter hit and my butt has been hanging out on my couch a bit too much. I'm certainly not in the shape I was last summer and would love to take off that winter gain. I figured if I didn't have the accountability of this challenge, I'd continue to just wait until I found time. The point is...I have to MAKE the time for myself and this challenge will provide me the motivation.

So, I'm going to break it up and do this for me. Here's my plan:

• 10 minutes when I get up on the eliptical
• 10 minute walk mid-morning (I work on a beautiful campus)
• 20-40 minute walk each lunchtime
• 10 minute walk mid-afternoon
• 20 minute walk/run/eliptical after work before picking up the kids if I didn't get time in during lunch.

I can do this! Right?!?

Oh yeah, and there is the additional daily challenge of doing 20 crunches and 30 leg lunges (to increase by 10 each week). What the heck was I thinking?!?

Since the challenge doesn't start until Thursday, I figure I still have tonight and tomorrow to enjoy my lazy ways! :)

5 years ago today...

...we saw this beautiful face for the first time. After almost 14 months of waiting, we received our referral for Elise. It was such a surreal day!

Our DTC group (Dossier to China, now known as Log in date, I believe) had become a very close knit and supportive online group. At the time, a 13-14 month was the longest it had been in many years and the wait was excruciating. Sadly, the wait has now extended to well past 2 years.

We had heard rumors that referrals were due in any day. Most of thought we’d start we’d start to see them on April 1…April Fools Day seemed a fitting day to receive our referral after such a roller coaster ride! (Remember, SARS was also playing havoc with international adoptions at the time.)

Sandra in our group was the first to post that she had her referral for her Jasmine. This may seem strange, but most of us had already named our daughters and the group had gotten to know these little girls who only existed in our hearts at that time. Seeing pictures of these little girls materialize was just amazing.

I remember sitting in my office talking with a Vice President (who had also adopted). My phone rang and I saw my agency’s name come up on the caller ID. Thankfully the VP, having gone through “the call” herself, tactfully understood that I wanted her to LEAVE when I said "that's my agency calling!

I answered the phone to hear Carolyn from our agency say “I’m looking at a picture of your daughter and she is beautiful!” That’s all I remember from the phone call. I was in such a state of disbelief. To be honest, I remember being in a similar state of disbelief when I found out I was pregnant with Carson (I argued with the nurse that I could NOT be pregnant because I never got pregnant!)

I called Perry and he met me over at our agency’s office. I made him promise to wait for me in the parking lot if he arrived first so we could see our daughter’s face together.

I can’t even describe the emotions of seeing her face for the first time. I do remember thinking, “Wow, she’s Asian” which was such a dumb thing! Duh, what was I expecting?!? But, Carolyn was right…she was (and is still!) the most beautiful little girl I’ve ever seen. We signed the acceptance paperwork on the spot...there was no doubt that this was our daughter!

My sister was the only family living nearby at the time and she happened to be off work that day and met us down at the agency’s office. She had her boys with her and I don’t remember them being as impressed!

Thanks to technology, Elise’s picture was shared with friends and family all over the country within a matter of hours.

It’s hard to believe it’s just been 5 years. It seems like yesterday, yet it also seems like a lifetime ago. Somehow, this beautiful perfect little girl was destined to join our family from half a world away. The agony of waiting just melted once we saw that picture.

From there, however, we still had SARS to deal with as we waited for our travel approval. What an anxious time for all of us in our group, knowing our babies were waiting for us and knowing that we might not get to go get them in a timely matter. Several in our group had to deal with people telling them they shouldn't travel at the time, some had to go into quarantine when they returned, all of us had to deal with dumb comments and plan for taking extra precautions when we did travel. Most of us did make it over to China before the country closed down adoptions for a short while, but there were several families that did not make it and had to wait several months longer than the rest of us.

We are so thankful to China for allowing us to raise this amazing child. She is so proud of her Chinese heritage but so solidly an American child!

Elise…we are so privileged to be your parents. We love you with our all our hearts and look forward to seeing what life has in store for you!

Weekend random thoughts

Just a few thoughts...

• My kids are fighting at the moment. Sigh. They've alternated between being the best of friends one moment and screaming at each other the next. How soon can we call it bedtime?

• My folks came and babysat the kids. The kids had a GREAT time. Grandma took Elise to one of those pottery places and Elise painted a castle switch plate for her room. We go back in a week to pick it up and I can't wait to see it! Grandpa took Carson to a small lake in town to wander (one of Carson's favorite activities!).
  

• I ended up taking Carson to the dreaded school carnival on Friday evening. It actually wasn't all that bad. I saw a few other parents that I enjoy. One mom told me she and her hubby did Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who would attend the carnival...she lost. I was SHOCKED at how many of the little girls had larger chests that me (although, honestly, that doesn't take much). Seriously, these kids are all 3rd, 4th and 5th graders! I'm assuming the chesty ones were 5th graders, but *sheesh* that seems young for such b**bs! Then again, I was lucky to be wearing a bra by high school, so who am I to say?!?

• Perry and I enjoyed a quiet date night last night. We went to a German restaurant about an hour away. Just that alone catching up the car was wonderful. We decided that we really do need to do this more often. As for the food...Perry LOVED it. I had a harder time finding something I liked....I did get a kick out of the "lighter side" portion of the menu. One item was salmon...deep fried (not sure how that qualifies as "light")!

• We arrived home to find the kids in this get up. They did end up sleeping in it almost all night (until the storms came through at 5:00 am and they piled in bed with us!)
  

Sick day

We had a night of storms last night and sometime during the night, Elise crawled into bed with us and snuggled up against me...burning up! Poor kiddo! She rarely gets sick but does tend to spike quick fevers. So I'm home with her today. (I had an off campus meeting all today that didn't look all that much fun, and I'm not complaining about missing that!) With some OTC meds, she already seems to be perking up a bit.

Here are a few other random thoughts:

• We're so ready for spring. The weather is teasing us these days. A day or two of 60 degree weather, followed by cold, wet and dreary days. (It's one of those cold, wet and dreary days today.) We bought some new deck furniture a few weeks back and I keep thinking "maybe we'll get it out this weekend"...nope, still sitting in the garage tempting me to smash into it every time I pull the car in. :)

• Basement is still a mess. Wallboard on one wall was partially removed to dry the walls, so we need to get that repaired now. Carpet has been ordered but won't be in until April 15. Perry's looking at double sump pumps, battery backup models and alarms. (can you say cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching as the costs for this "minor flood" start to add up?)

• Carson's school has a carnival tonight. Am I the only parent that dreads those events? A friday night in a school overflowing with hyped up kiddos and stressed out parents? The one at Carson's old school (now Elise's school) really drove me nuts....the school was just not large enough to accommodate the crowds. Hopefully tonight's will be better...or better yet, maybe I'll just stay home with Elise and Perry can take Carson! (He has a much higher tolerance for the things that turn me into an anxious wreck!)

• Perry and I have a date night this weekend! We so rarely do that! I gave him a gift certificate to a German restaurant for Christmas that we are finally going to use. Perry's family is German and he really gets a hankering for good ol' German food every now and then. It'll be fun to have some alone time with the hubs!