This and That

Spencer is off track for two weeks. So, this week I took Spencer and Jacob to the Rec center to take swimming lessons. I have them both enrolled in the same class, (Beginners: Ages 3-5.) Spencer is a little advanced for the class and Jacob was the youngest and smallest one there. It is nice that the class only has 4 kids in it. Everyone had a great week of swimming. I have them enrolled next week in the same class. It is great to have something to do everyday while Spencer is not in school. Jacob is really great in the water and loves it! Every morning the first thing he asked is, "When do we go swimming?" Their favorite part was the last day of class, when they got to play on the slide.

Friday was also a good day for our China adoption. As you might remember, we finally got our immigration approval on Monday. I took all the documents to be state certified. I thought I could do it same-day. No such luck. They wanted to charge $65 per document to do it same day. So I just had to roll with it and be at their mercy. So, I dropped it off on Tuesday morning at 8:30AM and was able to pick it up Friday afternoon. It basically adds a week to the process.

After I picked up our final state certified documents I made photo copies and dropped it off at Fed-Ex. The Washington DC courier will get it Monday and it will go through the authentication process starting Tuesday. Authentication will take 6-8 working days. So it is possible (but not likely) that we could have our dossier to China by May 10. But it seems more likely that it will be sent out May 17. (Our agency sends dossiers to China on Fridays.)

It is kind of a relief to have it done. Everything that we can do has been done, now we wait. It will happen eventually. I love that feeling. I was just reading a blog from a friend I follow, they are hoping to adopt domestically. They recently made contact with a birthmom and this taken from her post:

And then an explosion of questions ran through my head: Is she really gonna choose us? Should I get my hopes up? Does she want to meet us first? How many families has she contacted? How sure is she about an adoption plan? How is her decision-making going up to this point? Does she have a timeline for herself about choosing a family? Why is she choosing adoption? What would she like as far as future contact with the adoptive family (more open or closed)? What did she like about us in particular?

When I read all those questions, I physically felt sick. My stomach was in knots and I felt light headed and anxious. I cannot, cannot imagine going through domestic again. It was such a gut wrenching experience for us. I know it works so beautifully for some families, but I just can't wrap my head around doing that process again.

I am just glad that when we see our daughter for the first time, she will be ours. No waiting to see if someone changes their mind. International adoption is hard in other areas. . . like waiting 8 months before we can travel to bring her home. That is a hard wait. But overall, emotionally I am built for an international process.

I have had one more thing on my mind lately. I want to write a book.

In February I was preparing my workshop on interpersonal communication skills for missionaries. I had so much stuff I wanted to share and was trying to whittle it down. One day as I was in the shower thinking about my presentation, I was thinking. . . I need to write a book. It was such an exciting feeling! I felt so overcome with the emotion of it all. It was like I knew I would write it. I just saw it and felt it.

I was filled with excitement and just kept thinking about it all morning. Wow! I was going to write a book. Then reality set it. Yeah.  . . and I could be astronaut too and I why don't I loose 50 pounds while I am at it. Just keeping up with my three active boys and my online class is an extra-full time job. Um, writing a book is hard and takes time. What was I thinking?!

But the idea persisted. I finally came to agree with myself that when Luke was in kindergarten and I had a little more time during the day I could write my  book. That seemed to satisfy my mind. Then after the workshop I thought, this could really fill need. Maybe I should work on it now. . . So I thought I might as well do a little research on how one gets a book published.

I looked at two different publishers that work with the LDS market. It seems that Cedar Fort and Deseret Book are really the only two choices. I read over their requirements and guidelines. I was pleased to see that you do not have to write an entire book first, you can write a "book proposal" and submit 2-3 chapters for them to review. That seemed reasonable. I am new to the publishing world and have no clue about the ins and outs.

I sat down and it was very easy to write a table of contents. I knew what chapters I would want to include and it seems just like writing on my online lesson plans. Then it came to actually writing a chapter. I just got lots of ideas down and when I was about 75% done I had Dave look at it and give me some pointers. He is a wonderful writer and was great at pointing our formatting suggestions and also giving me some overall guidance, for instance he liked my examples/stories and wanted more of that.

It took about 3 weeks to complete my first two chapters. I was kind of possessed with the idea. I was up late writing, researching and reviewing. Nap time was time to work on my project. It felt kind of exciting. Now that my sample chapters are done, it is time.

I felt like I did and didn't want to submit it. I did because I want to take the next step forward, but it is a scary step. What if they don't like it? I was thinking about revising it, but honestly it wouldn't change that much. It is what it is and if there isn't a market for it or if they don't think it will sell, no amount of rearranging or refining will change that. They have editors and publicists, if it has potential they will see it. 

I decided to submit it to Deseret Book first, they are the gold standard. They have their own book stores and an extensive marketing and promotion arm. I think they would be the best bet for any LDS author. On their website it says they receive many manuscripts and it will take about 12 weeks to receive a reply. I just dropped it in the mail on Friday, April 26.  So, over the next 3 months or so I can work on the other chapters.

If it ends up that Deseret Book is not interested, I will submit to Cedar Fort. Cedar Fort requires a completed manuscript and also takes about 3 months to reply to requests. It will be a good goal for me to work on, knowing I need to complete the book to submit it to them. I might be tempted to slack off if not for that fact. My goal is about 40,000 words. My first two chapters were 3200 words & 3000 words (about 25 pages double spaced, including the bibliography.)

I am hoping to hear back around August and take it from there. It is kind of exciting to think about writing a book. Wish me luck!

Approval!

Yes, you heard me right! We got immigration approval in the mail today for our daughter in China. Yippy!

This was the last item we have been waiting for to compete our dossier. I got it notarized today and will take all our Utah documents to be state certified tomorrow. Then off to Washington D.C. to be authenticated by the State Department and the Chinese consulate.

For those keeping track, we applied for immigration approval on March 11, 2013 and received approval April 22, 2013 . . .for a grand total of 39 days. Not too shabby.

Now, it will take about 2 weeks to get everything done in D.C.  So that puts our Dossier to China around May 10. That still puts us in the "wildly optimistic" range. . . however I think the longest wait will be waiting for a referral. It could be a long wait or a longer wait.

But I will celebrate the good news now! Hurray for immigration clearance.

April News

Since it has been a couple weeks I thought I would post some of our recent doings.

This past weekend we planted 3 trees. Two trees (a pine & a maple) died over the winter and needed to be replaced, and we planted a third tree in a spot I have been eying for awhile. It was a long day on Saturday, we went to Lowe's, Home Depot and a nursery. We ended up getting one tree at Home Depot and two at Lowe's. We rented a truck (by the hour) from  Home Depot to get the trees home. I returned the truck with 7 minutes to spare :)

Check out this lovely Austrian Pine:

On Friday Dave also put up the shade sail, to give us cool shade in the months to come.  Besides planting the trees & and putting up the shade I did some weeding. I was getting so excited for the nice weather. . . I say "was." This morning, snow on the ground. Really? Sigh.

Luke is crawling up a storm and is getting so mobile.  It is so hard to believe he is almost 11 months. Wow.  He is just such a happy, happy boy. Still not sleeping through the night, although he can make it to about 5:30AM one day out of three. Slow progress, but still progress.

I am haunting the mailbox. Waiting for our visa clearance for "sister." I have all the documents ready to certify at the capital and then. . . off to the courier.  It just can't happen soon enough. I wish we were already matched.  It is hard to think our daughter is being held by someone else right now. She is with her caretakers and we just have to wait to be introduced to her. Soon, honey. . . soon.

We-heart-bubbles

Aunt Nae gave Jacob a bubble machine for his birthday.

Totally awesome.

Crockpot Meal Report

My sister Sandy also did the crock pot cooking challenge. She blogged about her cooking day and the results. Check it out: http://sandys-shout-out.blogspot.com

I thought I would also report on the meals we have had. Here we go. . .

Crock-pot Honey Garlic Chicken: Good: We used drumsticks and thighs.
Crockpot Applesauce BBQ Chicken: Good: We shredded this and served on buns.
Buffalo Chicken: Not Good: This was way too spicy for our family. I thought I got mild sauce, but I must have grabbed the wrong bottle or "mild" makes your lips buzz. The boys wouldn't touch it. . . H.O.T. 
Cilantro Lime Chicken: Good: We served it on warm tortillas with a little cheese. It made a lot.
Crockpot Green Chile Pork Stew: Good: Next time I will dice the pork into smaller bite-size pieces.
Easy Crockpot Mongolian Beef: Good: Served over rice with frozen mixed veggies.
Crock Pot Chicken Cacciatore: Good: Served over angel hair pasta. Everyone loved it.
Hawaiian Chicken: Good: Served over rice, next time I will not cut green peppers into rings. It was time consuming and by the end of the day in the crockpot, you couldn't tell. I added corn starch right before serving.
Hearty beef stew recipe: Good: This made A LOT. I will be making this recipe and freezing it in two zip lock bags. Seriously huge. No need to double :)
Orange Chicken: Meh: C-, it was okay but not good enough to make again.
Crock-pot Beef Fajitas: Good: Next time add more beef.
Creamy black bean chicken: LOVED IT & HATED IT: I loved this recipe, we served it over rice. It was been my favorite one so far. It was so good! Dave and the boys did not like :( Dave thought the cream cheese was too overpowering. .  What? How can something have too much cream cheese? I was out voted on this one. . .It won't be going into the future rotation. . . (Weeping, Wailing, Gnashing of teeth.)

We have had a little over 1/2 the recipes. I am pretty happy with the results. Of the 12 recipes, nine we will make again and three will be hitting the road.  I think those odds are pretty good, a 75% success rate for these new recipes.

Capes

Yesterday my magnetic snaps came in the mail. I was finally able to make capes for Spencer & Jacob. The pattern was quite simple and the boys love the end result. Last night when I checked on Spencer before I went to bed, he was asleep in bed with his cape on. Thank goodness for those magnetic snaps, I don't worry about it being a choking hazard. I just tucked him in and smiled.

The capes are reversible. It has a red side and a pattern side (with dragons and flames.) 

Some times it hard being a mom. Luke is still not sleeping through the night and I feel exhausted when I wake up get out of bed.  Then my patience level is diminished. Then Jacob puts an entire roll of toilet paper (including the cardboard roll) in the toilet and just keep flushing until the toilet over flows while I am in the shower. Or Spencer spends 20 minutes complaining about how he can't read for 20 minutes because it is "boring." Or Jacob sticks a tic-tac up his nose and a trip to the Insta-care is required.

But. . .  when I see the pure delight and joy on my children's face as they run as fast as they can so their new capes flow in the breeze.  .. I think. . my life is pretty darn amazing. . .tic-tacs, whining, midnight feedings and all.

Here is one more cape photo. Spencer said he wanted to look serious. Being a superhero is a serious business.

Jacob's 3rd Birthday

Our Jacobite is 3 years old! Can you believe it? It was a mere 2 years ago that we saw his sweet face and celebrated his first birthday (while he was still in China.) Now here we are with our sweet and adventuresome son celebrating his birthday.

I told Jacob he could pick any cake he wanted. . . This is me thinking, "chocolate, white, yellow. . ." Then Jacob says truck cake! Hmmmm.

So Jacob and I hopped on Google and started looking for cakes. Well, when Jacob saw the fire truck cake, his heart was won over.  Thank goodness Betty Crocker has a YouTube video for an easy, easy cake. I had to run to the store and pick up some Oreos and an extra 9 x 5 loaf pan.

The cake came together pretty well, except for the red frosting. The tutorial said, just use "alot" of food coloring.  I used and entire bottle of red food coloring and it was pink. . . neon pink. I called Dave for some help. He picked up another set of 4 food coloring (you can't just buy red alone at the grocery store.) I used an entire second bottle of food coloring and added a little black. Overall I like how the color turned out.

In the midst of the neon truck debacle, Janelle came by and we got to visit. She brought and amazing gift for Jacob. . .  a bubble machine! What three year old can resist bubbles? He was so excited and wanted to play with it right then and there. Bently (Janelle's pug) also came to visit the birthday boy. The boys had a great time. (I wish I had gotten some photos.) They were feeding the dog treats and were so excited when they said "sit" and he would obey. It was a great time. 

We ended up with a red velvet cake with red frosting.

On to the presents! Jacob made out like a bandit. From us he got clothes, a book and toys. He also got some very cool toys from our neighbor, Aunt Kate, Grandma & Grandpa and of course his brothers. Jacob opened all the gifts with gusto! He was so excited and wanted to open each toy and play with it immediately. He was just so happy!

On to the cake! We sang happy birthday and enjoyed some cake. Although, the frosting was filled with finger swipes. . . from some certain little boys.

Here (below) you can see the frosting in the center is the bright pink I got when I first frosted the cake. I like the darker better :)

We ended the night with Grandma reading Jacob's new book to the boys, "llama llama time to share." I love the "llama llama" series, they are just great. I love "llama llama mad at mama" and "llama llama red pajama."

Happy, Happy Birthday to Jacob. . . our adventurer, always and forever.

My posse of Supermen :)

Who loves birthday cake?

Not as good as Aunt Tiff, but passable.