Long time...

It's been a while since I have written anything...it's crazy how fast the time goes. Not much has changed, we're just busy trying to get ready for Christmas. I love shopping for others and anticipating their reactions. I love the joy that Christmas brings. It's crazy to think that Christmas will be here in a week! I'm so excited to spend time with family and friends.

Festival of Trees

This week I went with my family to the opening night of Festival of Trees. My mom has donated a tree for the past few years. We have made it a tradition to go together and go out to dinner before or after. It is defiantely a good way to get everyone in the Christmas spirit. I was also able to take my students to see the trees on Friday. I thought that they would enjoy it more than they did, but it still was a fun and successful field trip. They did like to listen to the music and a couple of them got a glimpse of Santa. It was long day, but worth it. When I got home, I just crashed.

It is finally the Christmas season. We bought a new tree on Friday...I actually braved "Black Friday" to get it. I know, every once and a while I get a crazy idea. It wasn't so bad, though. Marlee and I first went to Lowe's to see if they still had the tree that I wanted, but they were all gone. We then decided to go to Wal-mart. The parking lot was packed. We decided to park on the street to avoid the mess. It took me a few minutes to decide on a tree, but once I did, we got out as quickly as possible. We got there at around 6:30 am and I was home and back in bed by 8:00 am. Later, after we had taken a nap we ran to Sam's Club because they had some ornaments that I wanted, but they were all gone, so I found some silver ornaments. I also found some ribbon that I love. It is brown with silver trim. I found a cute star at the Quilted Bear. I wasn't able to find a tree skirt that I liked so I went to the fabric store and made one myself. I think it turned out pretty well.

Travis spend Saturday putting lights on the house. He did a great job! I love seeing all the lights. I remember as a little girl going with my dad and grandpa on Christmas Eve to see Christmas lights while my mom and grandma got all the last minute Christmas things finished. Decorations are such a small part of the season, but defiantly bring the Spirit of Christmas.

Thanksgiving

I am so grateful that it is Thanksgiving. I love this time of year, for the most part. I was able to go shopping with my mom and sister today and it is so awesome to feel the holiday spirit everywhere you go. Some places are crazy, everyone is trying to get all their holiday goodies and sometimes they aren't very nice, but for the most part people are nicer around this time of year. I wish that everyone would carry the spirit of Christmas year round.

We met with our case worker yesterday. She is very nice and helpful. I am super excited about everything, but I am also nervous and overwhelmed. I just want to make sure that we do things right and that we don't screw it up somehow. Part of me is scared that they might say the we can't we approved for adoption because of some crazy reason...I don't know what could cause us to be denied, but I'm still stressed about it. I guess that this is something that I have wanted for so long that I just want everything to go smoothly.

New pictures...

I know that I just posted something yesterday, but Travis and I got some new pictures taken a few weeks ago and I just got them back today and I'm excited to share them. Thanks, KP, for taking our pictures...you are a rock star!

We have decided not to get a new dog...as much as I want one, we just feel that with all that is going on in our crazy lives right now, it's just not the right time. Maybe one day, after we know what is going on with the whole adoption situation.

Another day...

Well, I don't really have much to write today. Not much has changed in our lives over the past few days. We did go to Petsmart on Saturday and found a dog that we are considering adopting. He is a beautiful 1 1/2 year old baby boy! He is so sweet. We introduce him to Cameron and for the most part they did really well. I would image that it would get better with time. We are not sure though if adopting him at this point in our lives is an option. Mostly, Travis is nervous because he did not grow up having dogs, where I grew up with multiple dogs and often other animals, including rabbits, fish, lizards, and hamsters. I think that he would make a great addition to our family, but ultimately we need to come to a decision together.

As far as adopting a human baby, not much has changed. Travis did receive a message from our case worker to set up our intake interview, but has been unable to get hold of her due to her part-time employment status. Hopefully, we'll hear from her tomorrow or the sometime this week.

Update...

Not much has changed over the last few days. I am finally feeling better and Travis is looking forward to the end of the semester. I know that he needs a break from school. We're excited for the upcoming holidays. This is the best time of year. It is so much fun to be surrounded by our families. It is crazy and hectic, but we love it. I'm so glad that we were able to find a home that is close to our families. It is really awesome to have such a great support network and to be able to maintain good relationships with our families. We are really lucky to have such great families that we can call friends!