My parents...

...as depicted in stick person on the back of Dad's car. Eerily accurate, don't you think?

When you're from the country, it doesn't matter what your folks name you...

Because people will call you whatever they want to anyway. This is what I have learned over the 10 years (yes it will be 10 years on June 22nd) that Jeff and I have been a couple. I remember the very first time I met Jeff's parents and siblings and heard them call him Jackie. I was like, "Where do they get Jackie from when your name is Jeff?". The answer is cause they can call you whatever they want in the country. If their faces are pointed toward you and a name comes from their lips, then it's you that their talking to and you best answer. That's the same reason why Jeff's brother, Edsel, is Ekkey and his brother, Melvin, is Chet. Just cause I said so - that's why. Even these nicknames don't compare with the fact that he has an Uncle Babydoll and a Cousin Sweetie. Trust me, folks, these are NOT their real names but they identify with them and will wonder what's wrong if you call them by anything else.

Now on to what brought this realization home... Tonight we were visiting Jeff's uncle (named Silas, called Uncle Si - fairly reasonable) in the hospital and we met a family member that is not blood related to Jeff...he is on the other side of the family. The crew was hooting and hollering about fishing and growing tomatoes (things they do in the country) when the distant cousin started talking about his family members... Are you ready? He has a Cousin Fat Gal!! The bad part is that he said, "Yeah...Fat Gal has two kids...I forget what her real name is." So forever in time this poor woman from the country is Fat Gal, sister of Skeet and Buster...with no remembrance of what her parents put on her birth certificate.

While I find lots of humor in all of this, it is part of the culture of our lives that I can't wait to bring to our baby girl. But, trust me on this one, she will be Lily Faith through and through. No Big Booty Girl or Raven Hair nicknames for our sweetheart please :).

P.S. Please, God, do not let Jeff's family ever read this blog post and, if they do, make sure they know how much I love them ;).

10 Random Things That Made Me Smile This Weekend

I am stealing this theme from one of my favorite blogs...but it's been a while since I've posted and I needed some inspiration. Here goes...

1. Rumor Queen (http://www.chinaadopttalk.com/) posts projections each month after China adoption referrals come out. This month our LID (6-14-06) actually made the projections. Woot woot!! The top lists referral batch sizes based on the # that have been referred during those time periods ranging in small, horrid, bad, mid and good case scenarios. The side is the month of the referral batches starting with next month, June 2009. The last year and a half or so have been batches in the small to horrid range so I am not too excited since we don't appear until you get to the bad case scenario. But still...we're there and maybe this means that we will actually get our referral in the next 12-18 months.
2. We went to Brooke's wedding this weekend and, of course, it was gorgeous. It was raining on Saturday and her dad actually used a blower to dry off the seats for the guests. It started raining again during the ceremony and several of us got out umbrellas but it was actually pretty beautiful with nature's elements.

3. I got to enjoy 2 whole days with my husband away from home. I love that man.

4. While we were away, Jeff and I saw a mommy with her adopted Chinese baby girl in the parking lot at a shopping center. We turned for a minute and they must have gone in to a store cause Jeff turned to me and said, "Where did they go?". I'm happy that he has joined me in my Asian baby stalking. Sweet.

5. We went to Ikea to just browse for baby goodies and found this chandelier that I think will be a perfect replacement for the ceiling fan in Lily's room. And Jeff agreed. Wowsers.

6. We also picked up some white curtain panels that were on a huge sale at Ikea (9.99 on sale from 29.99) and Jeff actually said, "If we don't like them then we can just dye them and see what happens." I see shades of pink fabric dye in our future. Smart man.

7. We got take-out from Shane's Rib Shack on Sunday and Jeff shared his french fries with me while we ate on the ottoman in the hotel room. They had this awesome spicy mustard sauce that I dipped my fries in. Bad for me but yummy!!

8. Dad is coming to visit this week and I am looking forward to it. If he feels better (from his icky sore throat) Jason will be here too, Brandee will come over and we will celebrate with a s'mores and weinee roast this weekend. Yippee!!

9. I am D-O-N-E with my 90 hour preceptorship and will start my LAST semester of nursing school on Friday!

10. Shankopotamus

Oh my aching dogs

My feet are killing me!! I am doing a super marathon of 12 hour shifts this week trying to get my preceptorship finished before the next semester starts. I will be doing (fingers crossed) 51 hours in the CCU in the first 4 days of this week...that's a lot of time on my feet. Trust me, there is no sitting for nursing students on the unit. When I'm not taking vitals every hours, I'm getting ice water and coffee and cleaning up various icky bodily excretions. It's fun. Every now and then I get to do something neat like put in a foley catheter or monitor an intra-aortic balloon pump. But I digress...my point is that my feet HURT!

I am trying to make my clinical shoes work through the end of school and until I can make enough money to invest in those good nurse shoes - the Danskos. All the hip nursey chicas that I am meeting swear by those so they must be good for feet like mine, right?

For now...I have to be really nice to Jeff so that I might be pampered with a foot rub every now and then. That's the only thing that might calm the dogs. :)

Pretty Words

I remember being in high school and experiencing real poetry for the first time. I had an incredible writing teacher, Mrs. McGraw, who inspired me to think about words in ways that I never had before. She was awesome. During the first week of every school year, she painted the walls in her classroom white and brought paints in all the colors of the rainbow with her for our lesson. Her task - to have all of the students put their handprints on the walls of the room thus leaving their mark.

That year I read what would be my life-long favorite book - A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. For close to a month, we lived that book in class and when we finished we held a memorial service for Owen in the courtyard of our school. We had all written obituaries for him and read them aloud.

That year I fell in love with words...poetry, short stories, novels, quotes. To this day, I credit Mrs. McGraw with inspiring this in me and for giving me the guidance and constructive criticism that I needed to help me feel confident in my ability to express myself with pretty words.

There are certain pieces of poems that have stayed with me since that time and this one crossed my mind today...very fitting for my sis and some things she is going through. It's great how we can take poems, quotes, etc and make them fit our lives, isn't it? Anyway...this is one of my all time favorites...

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind... -William Wordsworth

Funky Crime Chicas

You know I love me some dead shows, right? And part of the reason they are so cool is that they incorporate some really funky women. So I put this out there... who do you think is most crime-a-licious?

Garcia from Criminal Minds

OR
Abby from NCIS?

I think they both rock.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

• I have completed 39 of my 90 hours of precepting. I am trying hard to get these done before the next semester starts on 5/29.
• It was warm today and I sat outside in my lawn chair for about 2 hours soaking up vitamin D - I love the summer!
• My hair has turned curly...go figure.
• Henry comes back to Ugly Betty next week.
• Jeff has had a few times this week where he hasn't had to work 15 hour days.

The Bad

• I have 51 more hours of precepting. I want to get them all done next week. 4 twelve hour shifts plus 3 extra hours...I'm scared.
• It was warm today...but it's supposed to rain this weekend. Blah.
• My hair has turned curly and I'm not sure what to do with it.
• This week and next are the season finales of some of my favorite shows...including Ugly Betty. I guess they are ending just in time for the hard core summer semester in which I need to spend all my time studying instead of watching TV.
• Jeff got off early 3 days this week...all of which I was at the hospital till 7. At least he got to come home and chill. One day he made me dinner and had it waiting when I walked in...what a sweetie.

The Ugly

• Brandee has a wrecked car, has been sick and is going through a pretty crappy time right now. But she is strong and she'll make it...even though she may not know it.
• The nursing job market has slowed and I am afraid that I might have to start on the night shift or I might have a tougher time getting a job than I had hoped...ARGHHH. If you have followed me for any time then you know that I think the night shift SUCKS and I NEED to get a job ASAP.
• There is a rumor that China will be holding off on all referrals and matches until possibly September, 2009 due to the swine flu. My heart is broken with this one.
• We are STILL waiting on some paperwork to come in for our third home study update. These updates are killers and I will jump off a cliff if we have to do another one. Well...maybe not a cliff but I will do something ugly.

Happy Mother's Day!

I have an AMAZING mother. One of my most soothing and treasured memories is when she used to rub my hair when I was hurt or sad...it always made everything bad turn better. I love you, mom!!

Taking care of hearts

At the end of nursing school, you have to complete a preceptorship which is where a nursing student is partnered with a nurse and is required to work alongside him/her and basically take on a normal nurse's patient load under the supervision of a licensed RN. I will start this experience on Monday.

I actually received my first choice of an assignment...the CCU (Coronary Care Unit) at Jeff's hospital. I am looking forward to seeing how I fare in a critical care setting, especially one where Jeff knows the nurses. As usual, when I go in to his hospital I don't tell anyone that my hubby works there unless he comes to the unit or unless I am directly asked...so maybe we can go undercover and he can get some more objective feedback on me. Not that I want my husband asking about young nursing students in his hospital but still...

I will be completing 90 hours in the CCU as quickly as possible because this summer semester is going to be a BEAR. At the end of it, though, I will be D-O-N-E.

Is it a competition?

Last week Jeff worked till 10:30 pm one night, got called in at 1 am, home at 4 am, up and back to work at 6:30 am. It would be a little challenge if that were the exception for him but it's the rule these days. He is working his booty off and I worry about him.

Note to Jeff: It's not a competition...you don't have to work more hours than the Pope. You are allowed to come home at night, eat dinner with your wife, watch Judge Judy on DVR and fall asleep on the couch. You have my permission. So there.

A little sunshine in this storm

Remember the lions?

After some really hard work by Jeff, lots of hot water, weird goop spraying and peeling with fingernails...

They're gone!

And we have lemon sherbet on the walls.