Today, I ran my last load of laundry in my old Maytag washer and dryer. We received them as a wedding gift 13 years ago. I read that the average life span for a washer and dryer is 10-13 years. My Mom and Ryan’s Mom both had Maytags for 20+ years while we were growing up (I know, weird coincidence). I was hoping my set would last that long.
They’ve hung in there, but the dryer was not drying after a whole cycle and there was no longer any temperature control. The only option was on and hot which is not very good for clothes.
So, Lowe’s is delivering a HUGE capacity front loader tomorrow. We will stack them in order to maximize the space in my tiny laundry closet, I mean, laundry room (I’ve decided that the only distinction here is that it can be called a “room” since there is a door).
….ya know, I am going to be doing laundry for 5 soon…
Well, actually, both of our Mom’s did laundry for 5 on their old Maytags…I will just be doing it in fewer loads…ahh, technology…
….and I love the automatic car wash….
….oh, and I love my blackberry…
….and don’t get me started on my Dyson….
Yep, it was bound to happen.
Hannah wiped out big time last night on her bike while we were at the park. She was playing with some kids who were on scooters and she got busy paying more attention to them whizzing by than focusing on her bike.
Bloody nose, bloody lip, bloody knuckles, bruised knees. I haven’t seen her yet this morning, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she has some bruising around her eyes…She felt pretty rough when she went to bed last night. I even woke up in the night to check on her.
BUT, even with shaken confidence, she got back on that bike and we came back home from the park the long way.
Way to go, Han! We will fall down, unfortunately, in life, but the important thing is that you got back on that bike!
…how many families in America have plastic Easter eggs strewn all around their house.
Hannah and Ellie have played “Easter Egg Hunt” all week hiding the eggs for one another. They have had a great time.
But, there are eggs hidden in every room…I think it will take us until the 4th of July to find them all!
Hannah and her Daddy are currently on a bike ride.
I am ashamed to say that she just got her first “non training wheel” bike last week. In Missouri, we lived on a hilly, rocky road where it would have been impossible for her to learn.
She had a couple of lessons this week after Dad got home from work and now they are off on a trail ride.
I am very proud of her – in fact, I was telling her that just a little bit ago while she sailed past me. I distracted her and she fell. As I looked at her hand and I could still feel that stingy, hot burn from having fallen on concrete. Remember?
Alas, I am inside making the preparations to dye the Easter eggs and she is off with her Dad!
I love the springtime when dandelions make their appearance. Not just because they bring Ellie such delight in picking them for our table centerpiece, but because of my mom.
My mom was very sick with pneumonia when she was due to have my sister (3_??? years ago). My brother was 3 years old that summer. One day he was enjoying a June day in the backyard, but kept coming to the door and knocking to tell his Mommy something nonsensical, but-very-important-to-a-3-year-old. My Mom was very sick and very pregnant and was continually required to get up and help him open the door every time he knocked. Finally, her patience slipped and she said, “What do you want this time??!!??”
He smiled up at her with his blue eyes and said, “Me just have a flowery for my Mommy.”
I have heard that story my whole life. I have a three year old now who loves to bring her Mommy dandelions and who can’t quite get that back door open by herself when her hands are full. I answer with a smile every time – remembering my Mom’s chagrin for years afterward.
Thanks, Mom, for telling that story – I remember, even on the seemingly endless trips to the backdoor to admire a rock or a leaf or to those lovely dandelions.
Ellie’s play has been deep, deep into pretending and role playing.
Today she was a unicorn. She went in to great detail about herself as the unicorn. (I was sort of listening, but focused more on preparing a salad for dinner.) I heard her say, amidst the endless chatter, that her leg was broken, but Mommy fixed it.
I finished making the salad, chest pumped full of pride, that I, in fact, can even fix a unicorn’s leg.
This morning we met with the caseworker who is writing our updated home study now that we have moved to Colorado. The meeting was pretty straight forward. We’re sort of “been there-done that” when it comes to adoption paperwork. We have learned that “hurry up and wait” is the category to place pretty much everything having the do with adoption process.
Have a meeting, hurry to turn in paperwork, wait for some bureacracy to get something back to you that you need to hurry up and get turned it and then wait for the next step. So were back to the paperwork “hurry up and wait”, but at least we are still in line in Ethiopia and hoping that the timeline will work out to have everything complete before we get to referral time.
Oh, and we need to go get fingerprinted again – in case we have committed a crime in the 30 days we have lived in Colorado! I have been fingerprinted so many times you might begin to wonder…
On another note…I kept daydreaming the other day about taking a blue balloon to Ryan’s office and suprising him with the referral comes. Not sure how we will find out and share the news…but that balloon was definitely blue!
I heard about 3 referrals earlier in the week, but the final count for this round is 5 referrals. They have been slow to come so far this year so this is exciting for those of us on the “waiting list”.
We have gotten the ball rolling in having our immigration paperwork transferred to Denver and updating our homestudy. Seems that Colorado homestudy requirements are quite a bit more stringent than other states, so I am still trying to understand what we need to do. I want to be sure there are no lapses in paperwork and everything is tied up nicely. – the last thing we would want is to have something missing when it comes time to welcome Treasure into our family.
Hannah wanted to carry a hungry, fussy Ellie the other day at a store. She said, “I should practice carrying around little one’s because I will be carrying Treasure.” She said that out of the blue, so it was heartening to me that having a new sibling is on her mind as well.
But the thing is, Ellie isn’t such a little one. This is the time of year I am glad that the season is changing because long pants are getting too short to wear much longer. She was as pleased as punch the other night when her blue jeans were obviously too small and I told her we were going to put them away for Treasure. If Treasure is a girl, we will be set…If Treasure is a boy, I am going to have tubs of tubs of girls’ clothes to take to Goodwill.
Now that we are feeling pretty settled, I have begun to think of how I will decorate the 4th bedroom as the Nursery. I guess those referrals really got me going…
We were gearing up to play a game of Twister after dinner last night. I told Ryan to be careful not to fall on any little people.
Ellie piped up, “Yeah, cause I might get squished-ded!”
It took 8 minutes to get home from Kohl’s tonight.
