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.

Down with pigs

There are rumors that there will be no referrals for China adoption this month due to the swine flu. This is horrible news for those waiting to see their child's face...people who have been waiting over 3 years plus whatever time they had to spend on their paperwork plus the time they may have spent exhausting fertility options. It may just be a short delay but any delay SUCKS and the potential is there that this may get really out of control. Something similar happened years ago during the SARS outbreak and lots of people who had actually received their referrals were delayed in being able to meet their children by months.

I hope, for many reasons, that this swine thing dissipates quickly. The word pandemic is a scary one for everyone and it has meaning for all of us. I just heard that the US has had its first death...a 23 month old toddler in Texas. So let's all do our part and pray for a resolution to this - some mutation that will make the swine flu less potent, a vaccine to be developed super fast, early recognition and testing for people so they can be treated with Tamiflu or Relenza and for people to act on this by washing their hands, covering mouths when sneezing or coughing and just being smart.

Brainiacs

I joined a network of smart folks today - Phi Theta Kappa. It is an honor society, not a sorority...so contrary to Dad's beliefs...there is no hazing involved. Unless you consider that I am one of the oldest people in the group and may not be able to participate in their bowling nights and weekend jaunts due to my increasing arthritis ;)...that's hazing enough. Jeff played photographer and even blessed me with a picture (and video) of my behind. You can see the pictures in this slide show (make sure to click on the little sign to turn the captions on)...




or you can go to the web album which will show you the video by clicking here...

Phi Theta Kappa Induction 1

Jeff, TV Narrator

Men are quirky. Jeff is no exception to that rule. Some times I just have to break out in laughter at some things that he does. Maybe I'm the real goof but, for some reason, I doubt that. If you know him then you know, Jeff is a ADDICTED to television. He completely zones out when the tube is on...no matter what show, commercial, inf0-mercial or multi-colored line pattern are visible on the screen at the time. He often immerses himself in the news or in a 1990's episode of Cops while I am in the kitchen pulling dinner together. He chooses this time to act as "Jeff, TV Narrator", heretofore referred to as Jeff, TVN.

You have to know that I can't see the television from our kitchen so I do a lot of poking my head around the corner to bring out the drinks, napkins, etc. and am always greeted by some update on what's going on on the TV. For example, "Honey, that man killed 12 people for nothing...I tell you I don't know why those people don't just kill themselves, why do they have to kill other people first?" or during Cops, "That man was high on crack AND he had pantyhose on. I wonder what HE was doing wearing those pantyhose...um hum I guess we kinda know." I have to respond by chuckling under my breath just so he doesn't know that I think he's an ever-loving HOOT.

The real funny-ness happens when I am sitting right here on the couch next to him and he STILL acts as Jeff, TVN. We are watching the SAME TV show and he stops every 5 minutes or so to give me a summary of what has happened heretofore. "There is that horrible swine flu business in Mexico, Obama has been president for 100 days and the stock market went up a few points...I wonder what's next?!?". Maybe I am just NOT RIGHT for noticing things like this but it really cracks me up.

Quirky I tell you.

Yuck...

...is how Jeff is feeling today. He has been a little under the weather for a while but today it has gotten the best of him. We spent the morning in the emergency room and now he is trying his best to recover on the couch. This picture was taken with my phone while he was waiting for a CT...in a moment of forced smiling. He is hurting pretty badly so please send some positive wellness vibes his way. I hate to see him like this :(.

Lions and Tiger and Bears Oh My....well ok, just lions

I was ambitious today and decided to tackle the wall of wallpaper in the baby's room. Oddly, every bedroom in this house had one wall covered in wallpaper with the remaining 3 painted. I am fortunate that this THIS room also has a border on the 3 other walls.



After I tore apart Jeff's garage to try to find our handy wallpaper scorer and DIF gel, I braved the task ahead. I used my fingernails to pry away one of the wallpaper seams and just let 'er rip. What I saw next was alarming at best...


Not only was there another layer of wallpaper underneath the superficial 80's layer...but it was a print. Not only was it a print...but it was LIONS. Not only lions...but boy and girl lions with foliage. And some of them had mustaches drawn on them with sharpie and eyes colored in with silver markers. If I ever saw the previous owners of this house, I anticipate that they would be either extremely eccentric or flat out crackheads.

I mean, really....in what era, room style or planet is this ok? On top of it all, it's not coming off. I think they used super glue to adhere it to the drywall. Not even my fingernails are working. So I'm exploring options right now. These creatures WILL be gone by week's end. They spook me out.

David Sed@ris Night

Last night, my rockin' brother hosted an evening of hilarity with a performance of David Sed@ris. If you don't know who he is, google him...you won't be sorry. He has a sense of humor accompanied by intelligent with that can not be duplicated. Trust me...I stayed up late last night trying to re-tell Jeff some of the jokes incorporated in to his short stories and I failed miserably. Jeff just looked at me like I was dropped on my head. You have to hear it straight from the artist's mouth I guess.

So here are a couple pics:

Me, Jason and Lori in an attempted self pic

Our view at the Cobb Energy Centre (I found out my camera has a bunch of neato settings so this turned out pretty well)

The three of us before the guffaws

Thanks Jason for a great night!!

Baby Splurging

I went to Atlanta yesterday (see next post) and made a pit stop at Ike-a. I had a surge of baby excitement as I was checking out the decorations and goods for wee ones. I just had to buy a few things. I spent very little but got a lot...at least I think I did.

I spent this afternoon putting together this high chair....
From this mess of parts...

And I didn't buy this rug but I hope to soon...

To go with the mesh tunnel thing that hangs from the ceiling to hold stuffed animals...

And to complement what will be the colors of the baby's room. Yellow walls with pink, white and green accents.

Hopefully it will come together. I'm super excited to see what the end product will look like.

34 Months

It has now been 34 months since our paperwork was stamped in China (our LID). 2 months until the big 3 years mark. I want to do something special to celebrate that...we'll see.

On the adoption front, Rumor Queen made a great blog post about the cultural differences that we will have to account for when we first meet Lily Faith. You can read it here --> RQ Blog Post

We are also making progress on the baby's room. I have cleaned out about 80% of the junk and am just about ready to rip down the 1 wall of wallpaper and the hideous border. Then comes the paint. I am thinking about a yellow color called Fresh Citrus. It is so much harder than I thought to find a good, vibrant baby yellow. I don't want the pale, pale color but don't want it to look like the sunshine threw up either. We will have accents of pink, green and purple. We have this light from IK*A (click here) that we will use somewhere and I was actually thinking of getting a couple more and making a little potted plant on the wall... Anyway, I'm done babbling about the nursery. It will come together and there is PLENTY of time.

For now, happy 34 month-a-versary to us!

Easter Egg Antics

What is Easter without a little dye-ing of eggs?!?

Leslie thought her paper towel was the prettiest part
Notice the green, blue, yellow theme? The orange and pink were broken.

Even Jeff got into it.

And Brandee tried the tye-dye method.

See the pretty potential egg colors...

Now it's time for some funky colored egg salad.

Happy Easter everyone!

I interrupt this icky week to bring you square butt laughter

Starring my favorite nightmare inducing plastic man --- THE KING



Ha ha.

Psycho Wife

Dear Jeff,
Hi there my husband. The last time you read my blog you said that you worry about me. I thought that meant that you could see that I was a little sad last week, missing our little one in China. But then you proceeded to tell me that some of my posts lead you to think I am a bit "psycho". I know you are worried about the world thinking your wife is nuts but, really now, I doubt that #1) there are more than 5 people who read my blog on a regular basis and #2) the world questions my sanity when there are other issues going on like nuclear weapons, a failing world economy and American Idol.

So...my love...don't worry about your "psycho" wife. I will continue to use my blog to convey my (sometimes manic) personality and document the highs and lows of life as I wait for all of our dreams to come true.

Your wife (truly sane and devoted),
Nicole

Dead Shows

I love dead shows. NOT Grateful Dead shows. You know - the crime shows that show how murders/deaths are solved. Forensic Files, Cold Case Files, Dr. G: Medical Examiner, The First 48, CSI (the real one and NY - Not MIAMI), NCIS and on and on. There is nothing like a good dead show to decompress, right? Unfortunately, I think I have reached the end of the dead show bank...I have been catching lots that I have already seen once or twice. And really...once you know how a person died, it's no fun to watch it again. Don't get me wrong...I am not waiting for more people to die just so that I can have fresh dead shows. That would be soooo wrong. And I don't do wrong. :)

Heavy Heart

You know how when something really, really bothers you, hurts your feelings or a big something catches you off guard you literally feel it in your chest? It's like a someone has their super huge fist wrapped around your rib cage squeezing until they either burst your insides or you let it out in a racking sob. Or like your heart is made of a magnet that is attracted unerringly to the floor and makes you want to collapse. (Kinda melodramatic, huh?) I know I had a teacher once who told me that there really is a physiologic etiology to the term "heartache". I believe it.

Today my heart is heavy...it hurts. Not because someone disappointed me or caught me off guard. Just cause I miss the little girl I don't know yet. Every month I stalk the referral rumor blogs looking for good news only to see just how far we are away from the whole parent thing. If it doesn't turn around soon, I am afraid my heart will be no good anymore. I doubt that worry, anticipation and pessimism will qualify me for a heart transplant. Boo hoo.

Ok, today's pity part is over. The picture is cute tho, huh?