The search began...

Today I began the search for a day care. I thought that while I had some time off from school I could narrow down my choices of day cares. In our area we don't have many to choose from, but I still want to do all I can to find the best possible place for Polar Cub.

The phone calls were pretty basic at first. Then when I couldn't give the age of my child, the sex of my child, or the date our child would be needing to start day care I was pretty much given the brush off and told to, "please give us a call when you have more information."

Okay, after a while being given the brush off is a little rough, but I can understand. I worked in day cares all through college. I understand they work in the here and now. I understand I don't have a "delivery date" or any of the normal information that a future mom may have, but I do have hopes that this school year I will have a child that may need your services. Please have a little time for me.

After getting some good advice from a good friend about another possibility I called our local school district. That is where the 'shiitake hit the fan'. After making me feel like I didn't know what I was talking about this woman said, "All day cares are the same. You drop your kid off, they play, they eat, they get sick, they go home." What the HELL!?!?!?!

This is going to be a long, LONG search. I am going to a meeting at the school district where I work later in the week. Since they seem to be moronic at our local school district, I'll go where I know some people who may still give me the brush off, but hopefully they'll be kinder about it.

Heavens this SUCKS!

Paint Walls -

Done!

It only took three days, but the walls are finished! The closets are cleaned and painted too!

I LOVE how the wall color came out, Big Bear does too. As Big Bear said, "It is the perfect blue. It's not baby/powder blue. It's not Kentucky blue. It's the perfect blue for 'her' room." :o) I couldn't get a better compliment than that.

Today we, I should say Big Bear, is hanging the blinds. I've learned to stay out of the way! I will be going back up when he hangs the curtain rods.

Next on the list is to find a ceiling fan. We looked at Lowe's last night, but didn't find anything we like. I see another trip to West Virginia to go to the Home Depot in my future this week.

It is still hard to believe we are really working on the baby's room!

It's Time...

I've decided - crazy as it may be - that it is time to put down on the blog a countdown to Polar Cub. It is getting close enough that hopefully it won't be too long. Maybe I'm jinxing the whole thing, but hopefully not.

There were two days worth of referrals this month. That was really sad for a couple of reasons. First of all my friend Catherine missed the cut off by ONE day. The only positive about it is we all know that YOU ARE NEXT my friend! August is Hannah month!!

Secondly, is purely selfish, but at this point the more days the better! I am sure everyone feels the same.

Yesterday while my friend, Cary, and I were working on the curtains for the nursery we started talking about this wait. We had a good laugh about the whole thing. What else can you do? We have been waiting so long that it will seem strange to NOT wait any more. {Cary is also waiting to go to China. Her LID (log-in-date) is July 14th.}

Who knows what the next few months will bring. I feel we will have a December/January referral. Then again, it is all just a guess. Who knew our 8-10 month wait would extend to 40+ months!?!

We WILL wait for as long as it takes.

I Finally Started...

For the last four years I have waited for this moment, and today it began. Way back when we first started the adoption process I knew exactly what room would be a nursery. I never wanted to start remodeling the room until we were close. I am so glad I didn't start the day we sent our paperwork to our agency. It would have been so hard to look at an empty nursery for so long. Also the theme in the nursery has changed from 'daisies & ladybugs' to 'polar bears'. I LOVE the idea of polar bears!

At the end of the school year I decided that I would at least get the nursery painted this summer. I am VERY hopeful that THIS is our year. Sometime before this school year is over I am going to meet polar cub. If not then someone is going to have to take me to the 'funny farm'.

Now that the nieces and nephews have gone home and vacation is over, it is time to start this project. I started by cleaning out the closets, wiping down the baseboards and taping them. While I was taping I actually got a little emotional. I couldn't quite believe that I was really doing this job. It sort of seems surreal.

Here is a look at the room before:

I can't wait to be rid of this hideous ceiling fan!

The closets are now empty. They are two smaller closets. I wish it was one large closet, but we think there is some duct work between them.

You can see I don't have many clothes at all for Polar Cub. I have been so hesitant to purchase anything. Just incase we get a 'Jack' instead of a 'Jill'.

I have been starring at these paint chips for three months! I never realized there were so many different blues! I really like the second color on the bottom two chips. The only problem with them is they have quite a bit of purple. If we get a 'Jack' I don't think a purple room is a good choice. I'd be painting again before we left for China.

This is it! After many painstaking hours of starring at all of the different colors. I kept coming back to this one. I know the photo is lousy, and it really isn't the same as it looks in person, but I love this color. It's called Alaskan Range. Perfect!

Tomorrow I am going to paint the closets, just a fresh coat of white. Tuesday my friend is coming to help me make the window treatments, and hopefully by Friday we'll have the room painted. WOW!!! I am really starting to get a little excited. :o)

Summer Catch Up

Summer is disappearing at an alarming rate! Things have been fun, but busy around here. I guess that is why time is going so fast. Here is a quick re-cap, as quickly as I can any way.

Big Bear and I finished the family room. The prints look much better in person than they do in this picture. We both really like the finished look of the family room. We need to find a few more pictures or wall art for the walls. I am not in a hurry. I want to find just the right thing.
My niece and nephews came for a visit. We had so much fun when they were here. We spent one day out at the farm. They all had fun. Mr. J really loved the freedom of driving the golf cart all over the farm. He CAN'T wait to start driving. Miss S. and Mr. T enjoyed riding the horses. Everyone enjoyed the tire swing.

Miss C and Mr. T giving Woody a cool down shower.

T on the tire swing.

All of our nieces and nephews.

The second week we all packed up and headed to Seiverville. My parents rented a beautiful cabin and two of my three brothers came down for the week.

Photo borrowed from the Oak Haven web site

We didn't do a lot of sightseeing while in Tennessee. We enjoyed hanging out at the cabin where we ate, played games, ate, and chatted the hours away. It was such a great time. I learned quite a bit while we were there. Top five:

1. My niece and nephews are growing up way too fast.

2. I SUCK at pool (billiards). My 14 year old nephew is really good at it.

3. Don't mix martinis with wine and then go for a walk. Hills increase in steepness 10-fold.

4. Big Bear and I can throw a pretty mean Mexican dinner! ;o)

5. Time spent with family is priceless!

Big Bear and I did take the kids to the Gatlinburg Aquarium one day. That was COOL!!

We stopped at an outlet mall after the aquarium. I don't think the kiddos liked this part much.

This is how we all felt on the way home from vacation.

It's been a GREAT summer so far!!

Could It Be...

...possible that we will see Polar Cub's face before the end of the year???

The chart above is from Rumor Queen's blog site. I normally don't look at the charts and graph, because they have been so depressing. This week, though, I did go onto the April '06 forum located on the RQ's site. There is such a feeling of energy and excitement in the forum, I can't help but get a little excited.

According to this chart, even if we only look at the worst case scenario we could quite possibly see our referral before Christmas. Our LID (log in date) is April 12. That would mean that we would be in the next batch NOT listed on the chart in the worst case column. It almost doesn't seem possible, and makes me all teary just typing this. We could see our munchkin in six months. Holy Crap!

In my little head I was thinking we would have a February referral, but I'll take it sooner. I'm trying so hard to not get too excited. You all know how this goes, anything can happen in the world of waiting, but good golly the light at the end of this everlasting, never ending tunnel just got a little bit bigger.

Family Room - Done!

The last time I posted I commented that Big Bear and I were about to start our 'Family Room ReDo'. The project wasn't as terrible as I thought, and I LOVE the results. Here is a couple of pictures of the before:

Big Bear did the top trim, and I did the base and window trim. Not a shocker to those of you who know us. *hahaha* I got up to move around the corner and this is what I see:

Love him!

After we finished the first round of trim work Big Bear commented how dark the color looked. It really did look darker than we had planned. Well, we finally figured out that I brought home the shade darker on the color swatch than the one we planned on. The color was supposed to be Teddy Bear Tan. Instead we got Smokey Topaz. I don't know if it was my fault or the paint guys, but it doesn't matter because this really turned out perfect.

The color looks a little more rust in the pictures than it does on the walls.

Now we are in discussion about what will go back on the walls. I really want to put the clock back up, my grandpa made it and even though it doesn't work anymore it means a lot to me. Big Bear doesn't show horses any more, so we are sort of past the horse pictures. I don't know which ones, if any, will make it back on the walls.

I did order these print blocks last week.

I saw them back in April on Pioneer Woman's blog and fell in love with them. I knew I wanted to find a place for them. We are going to put them up over the sofa table. Now the only question is two by two or four across????

The art work is titled 'Rain Prism' Here is the link if you would like more info or even want to get them for yourself. :o)

Next on the agenda are to paint the closets in polar cub's room. Hopefully I'll get that done this week. My niece and nephews arrive the first of next week, so I know I won't get much done while they are here. I'll be too busy playing! :)