Smartbutt

I just have to brag on myself today. I have had 3 tests in the last week or so for school and I have gotten A's on all of them!! I got a low A in psychology, a high A in Anatomy & Physiology 2 and a medium A on my A & P Lab practicum...now if I could just write those 9 papers for Psych I would be on a roll....

Jeff's Obsession

Dad arrived on Tuesday to actually live here - woohoo!!! He will be setting up the house, preparing for Mom to join him a little later this year. Jeff and I are thrilled that the move has begun and that Dad and Mom will be here permanently before the end of 2007 - I sure do hope they like it in Alabama!

One thing about London will be desperately missed though...Jeff's cookies. It seems like every time we go to London he finds a new kind that he adores. We bought about 8 packs of these tea creams when we were in London in May and he ate them within 2 weeks...and promptly accused me of filching his cookies since he couldn't possibly have eaten them that quickly. Trust me...I don't use my precious points on normal people cookies :). Anyway - so Dad brought him some more (thanks Dad!) but his suitcase was lost on his flight into B'ham. Dad was upset about the hundreds of dollars in tools and computer equipment that he had packed in that suitcase but Jeff has his secret concern for his cookies. Dad did get his suitcase back yesterday morning and Jeff, of course, was relieved for lots of reasons. I had to giggle when Jeff walked in from work at 10pm last night and said "Did Santa leave me some cookies?"... he is truly obsessed. Thanks Dad/Santa for your contribution!

Review Room Updated

Late last week the folks at the CCAA decided to update their website to reflect that they have now officially completed the review of applications logged in prior to April 30, 2006. It took them almost 4 months to update this from the previous review room date of March 30, 2006. Just a reminder that we are June 14, 2006 so there is a decent chance that we either are in the review room now or will be reviewed in the next couple of months (since the CCAA tends to review 2 months at any given time). I really hope it doesn't take 8 months for them to clear us because I will lose my marbles. I think all parents in waiting are a bit anxious until they actually are cleared through the review room and I am no exception. I really, really, really want to make it through this phase without any questions which might push us even further back in the line that we are waiting endlessly in. Keep your fingers crossed for us and say a little prayer for that nice person in China who will scrutinize our lives pretty soon.

Note to Jason (who happens to be my older brother)

How cute that you would post this story on your reader... What are you trying to say about the intellectual capacity of your younger siblings??

Here is the link if anyone wants to read more about it... http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/22/1233208&from=rss .

I will let this one slide but just know that I am very comfy with my braininess...or lack thereof. :)

One of my favorite famous people

is Alanis Morrissette. I saw her in concert when I was in college - at that phase when she was a little spastic. In my opinion, she is the perfect combo of beauty and angst...and I do love me some angst music. I like this video and song though also...

Somebody must love me

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Plethora of Tests

This week has been back to back tests for me. Tuesday morning I had a Psychology test and tonight it was time for Anatomy and Physiology 2. The first test in any class is difficult not knowing how the professor actually tests the knowledge of his/her students but at least the firsts are now behind me.

Please remind me next year if I plan to take Summer classes that it is a BAD idea... 2 hours of lecture following an hour and a half lab twice a week is absolutely no fun...even if it does only last for 10 weeks. Also...yell at me if I want to take an internet class again...they suck.

Ok so now that I have completed my tests and vented a little about them I will share this picture of a scantron form with you...no teacher gives tests without them anymore. Me, the scantron and my #2 pencil are best friends.

24 hours of Gatlinburg

Jeff and I took a quick trip to Gatlinburg this weekend to visit Grandma and Grandpa, my Aunt Susie, Uncle David and Shelley and my cousin Dave and his girlfriend Julie. We had a great, great time although we were only there for a almost 24 hours exactly. We stuffed our faces at the Apple Barn, went horsebacking riding and just spend some nice quality time with family. Here is a web album of our trip...just click on the picture of me and Grandma.

Gatlinburg June15-16, 2007

And here is the reason why my booty hurts today... my horse Skippy who would not go regardless of how many gently taps I gave him. The horse man said "painteds" are always slow but I wonder why the Sr. horse man assigned me to Skippy before he put anyone else on a horse. He had a plan for me I'm sure :).

Am I too young for a mid-life crisis?

I am feeling super strange lately...maybe it's just being so busy that I don't really know where to point my brain. Has anyone had that weird desire to get another tattoo, get something pierced, dye your hair a funky color (like may black, platinum with just the tiniest little red streak)?? Fortunately I have been banned from doing any of the above by my logical husband who realizes the importance of me looking presentable for a little thing called work but still... What's the solution for a mid-life crisis? Seriously folks I was thinking of trying on one of those little jean short skirts yesterday and, trust me, I don't have the bod for that. Help me out here. And I can't afford a sports car.

525,600 Minutes

How do you measure a year in the life??? Yes I am singing the song from Rent.

No matter how much denial I am in, the day has come...we are now officially into counting the years since our log in date instead of the measly months. One year ago today, a very nice person in China stamped our dossier (which we poured 8 months of our heart and soul into) with the date June 14, 2006 and we got in line to wait for our baby.

Today I have already reminisced about the FedEx saga that we endured after the wrong bar code was scanned starting in Alaska and all the way until our dossier arrived at the CCAA in Beijing and our 2 weeks of panic thinking our dossier would have to be recreated from scratch...I have already cried a few tears remembering how hopeful I was that we would be parents within the year while I must now accept that the timeline has possibly tripled or quadrupled and it could be 2009 before Jeff and I are mommy and daddy...I have giggled thinking about the home study question where Jeff answered that his worst problem growing up was getting the girls to stop calling after 10 p.m. ( yep that's my hubby)...and now I am just at my own weird state of peace I suppose. This journey is out of my hands completely and I am a control freak...not a good combo.

This morning as I was driving to work I thought - "What if this never happens and I am never a mommy??"...my answer to myself, in typical control freak fashion, is "NOT ACCEPTABLE!!". There is no negotiation to my future on this one topic...so watch out China because I will be there one day to celebrate the most beautiful moment of my life...when I look into my baby's eyes for the first time and know that all of my life's journey was leading toward that one moment...and my dream will be fulfilled...no negotiation.

So today's quote from my Zen calendar is from St. John of the Cross -

"In prayer, come empty, do nothing."

My 200th post

Congratulations to me on my 200th blog post!! I'd first like to thank my Mom and Dad for making this day possible and... just kidding - no speeches for real. I know I am still considered a geek for having a blog but... I heard on the Tyra show (which I do not watch just for the record) that everyone has some "So what?" moments in life and mine right now is "I have a blog and I'm a geek - SO WHAT??". Hers was "So my butt isn't as small as it used to be - SO WHAT?" I think I could second that one as well. Hee hee.

Kitchen De-wallpapering

The kitchen renovation continued this weekend with the enormous task of removing yards and tons and bunches of flowered icky wallpaper. Have I mentioned how much I absolutely HATE wallpaper?!? So here is the kitchen floor after just one small section of the wall was off..
And here is a wall sans floweredy-ness but pre-adhesive removal...

Right now we have completed all the wallpaper removal and scraping of the adhesive backing (I absolutely love DIF Wallpaper Removal Gel!) and we are debating paint color for the 4th time...hopefully we will make a decision very soon.

Open apology to everyone who has suffered the wrath

This week I have been a major bummer. I am stressed out and overwhelmed and have turned into quite a butthead. So I now say I'm sorry to everyone who I have talked to this week, everyone who has gotten a nasty e-mail from me and all the people that I have argh-ed at. I'll try to be better. I don't need to take a math class to figure out that Me + working a lot with an impending merger + Anatomy and Psychology classes + summer heat = ick. Sorry.

New Things

I got home from class late last night and had a package - you know how I love mail!! Thanks so much Lori for sending Jeff and I these hand-made dish cloths for our new kitchen. I know how much work you must have put in to them and we so appreciate you thinking of us!! They are gwo-geous!


Also, I have to sing the praises of our new Vonage service paired with our brand new set of cordless phones (see - they have color screens!!). I am so glad we finally joined the 21st century and ditched our regular phone service. Although I am still technologically challenged, it is working out for us and our phone line is tons more clear than when we were relying on those icky lines that connect from pole to pole.

Conflicted

We had some really good rumors last month about a potential big batch of adoption referrals from China coming up. I actually allowed myself to get excited and thought that things were going to turn around and we wouldn't have to wait FOREVER to become parents. BUT...referrals are now out and the batch is small again...only 6 days worth of referrals. Every month that passes, our estimate of when we will receive our referral lenghthens by at least 1-2 months. Right now, according to the China Adoption Forecast, the best guess would be around October 20, 2008...the absolute earliest would be June of 2008 if there was a huge speedup and the latest estimate is June of 2011. So I am enormously thrilled for those parents that were included in this 6 day batch but so sad for me and Jeff. Dang it, I just want to be a mommy.

My "Bachelorette" Weekend

I took a solo trip to Atlanta this weekend...poor Jeff was on call so
he had to hold down the fort at home. Here are a smattering of pictures from my weekend. I don't know how to put them in order so they are all over the place in this post. I had a nice meal with Jason and we hooked up to the wi-fi and he showed me some ideas about how to fix my router issue AND he worked on his health homework. Did I mention that he is a taking a booty-load of classes this summer - I don't know how he is doing it?! I also managed to see Yovy who I haven't seen in about 5 years...a shame that it had been that long but it was so nice to see him. THEN I had a flat tire...I know you are thinking "poor baby Nicole". But...I managed to put the spare on and make it to Sam's for a replacement. I did get to spend a little of my afternoon with Lee, Sythan and Caleb. They helped me through the tire situation, I had my very first Vietnamese food and then I discovered that I left my $300 digital camera at the restaurant...so I rushed back there and gave in and came home. So...here is my photo montage of the weekend.

My head hurts now since I had my first Anatomy & Physiology II class...4 hours worth. On top of my 8 papers and bunches of tests for Psychology. I am in over my head and I feel sorry for myself...so it's time for bed.

Sing it boyfriend

One Last Cry, After the Love, Back at One, Used to Be My Girl and on and on... Jeff and I went to see Brian Mcknight in concert on Thursday night where we witnessed a hilarious comedian and some big time hip gyrating. It was a good concert and we had better than average seats.

I was disappointed that he didn't perform more of his older songs - of which I have memorized every word of every song - but I understand his need to perform the stuff off of his newest CD, Ten.
All in all it was a good concert but Linkin Park still holds the position as the best concert of this year with Pink and Justin Timberlake coming in 2nd. As a side note, the best part about concerts these days is that you can actually bring a camera in...I suppose the people in power figured that cell phone cameras would eliminate their ability to prevent photos so they gave in.