Day 6-Wednesday Morning/Afternoon

Today we got up too late for breakfast. Actually, if you looked at the posted time, we weren't late, but obviously they wanted to close early...


So instead we trekked over to Hoa Lo Prison, otherwise known as the Hanoi Hilton. It was built by the French during their occupation of Vietnam in 1896. It was used to contain the anti-colonial movement among the vietnamese. The site was the former location of a ceramic village.


Once North Vietnam was liberated, the Vietnamese used it as a state prison. From 1964-1973 it was also used to house american pilots shot down over Vietnam. Most notably was Senator John McCain, who was inprisoned there from 1967-1973. It really was quite interesting. Only about a third of the prison remains, as it was torn down to accomodate a hotel...

Here is the entrance:

Uniforms worn by the prisoners
This is how the male prisoners were housed. Their legs are shackled down on concrete.
A Closer Look
These are the public toilets
A better look. You have to squat over the hole... FYI we have encountered many of these during our trip....
Read the Sign and next picture...

These had to have been some SMALL people.

"Head Cutting Machine"
Air suit worn by Sen. John McCain when he was captured.... Random pictures on the way back to our hotel.

Statue of Ho Chi Mihn

Not sure what this is...

FYI-Per another family's blog, our G&R has been scheduled for Friday at 3pm...

Day 5-Tuesday-Ha Long Bay

In the morning we made the trip to Ha Long Bay. We had a good time, although it was a pretty long trip. I can honestly say that we are through will long trips, aside from picking up Chloe. It was about 3.5 hours each way. We don't regret going, but that much driving is really exhausting!

Here are some pictures of the landscape leading in to Ha Long Bay:



There is a fishing village on the bay that you will see a couple of pictures down. You can buy all sorts of seafood from them. What you are looking at right now is squid I believe...

Random pictures from the boat of the bay...
This is a cave that we explored. It wasn't discovered until the year 1994 when two little boys were playing on the bay. I guess a hurricane came through and while they were searching for shelter, they stumbled upon this opening.
This is a view of part of the bay from outside of the cave.

Random Bay pictures:

This is part of the floating village I mentioned earlier. The people live out here and get around by boat. They fish and give tours of the bay for income.

The children that live in this village did not attend school until the year 2000. A group came in and funded the building of a floating school so that the children could attend. I think they attend through primary school. It was either a group from the US or United Kingdom that funded it. The tour guide said that US, but it looks like the sign says the UK.

So we spent about 3-4 hours driving out here, 4 or so hours on the water, and then 3-4 hours back. Needless to say, it was a long trip. But it was beautiful out here and we had a good time.

Barter System

I am deleriously tired right now, so I will probably take a quick nap and then I'll post about our trip to Ha Long Bay.

In the mean time, I wanted to share a funny story.

As I mentioned above, I am super tired, so I don't know if things are just coming across extra funny because of it, but I don't think so.

So, for dinner we went to this resteraunt kind of across the street from our hotel. It had a mix of Vietnamese, Europeon, and Western Food. Mark gets a chicken stirfry thing, and I get prawns in Thailand sauce. I didn't care for mine too much, as the prawns had all its legs, tentacles, etc. Anyway, that doesn't matter, as it's not the funny part.

Our dinner came to 108,000 dong, including drinks and everything. One US dollar is about 16,000 dong. So our dinner came to 6.75. Anyway, we go to pay. Mark hands the girl 110,000 dong. The girl kinds of looks over at me and asks me if I have 3,000 dong. Apparently she doesn't have 2,000 dong to give us in change. I tell her we don't have that change. She looks around for a second, then kneels down behind the register and pops back up and hands us a pack of gum that has a 2,000 dong price tag on it and tells us to have a nice day! So we've now had our first experience of someone bartering with US!

Anyway, I'll post pictures of Ha Long Bay in a little bit! Hope everyone has an awesome day.

Oh yeah. G&R definitely won't be tomorrow. Thuy is hoping for Thursday, but we'll see...

SPECIAL REQUEST

MOM OR JASON

Mark has a library book checked out that was due yesterday, although at the time I'm writing this, yesterday is today for you guys.... In other words, it was due on the 14th. Is there any way that one of you could take it back to the library? Someone's requested it so we can't renew it. It's called Striking thoughts : Bruce Lee's wisdom for daily living. It is either on the dining room table or Mark's desk. Thanks!

I forgot to mention this yesterday. I did a stupid, stupid thing. We (traveling families) were all sitting around this big table counting out money to give to Thuy for all of our fees. I had all my fees in seperate envelopes for each fee. I also had an envelope for the extra spending money, including food and hotel costs. At first everyone was going to expedite the passports, but then we all decided against it since its very possible it won't make any difference. So I had to make some different change for that fee, so I had to get out the spending money. Once I got everything counted out, I gave Thuy our money. Instead of counting it, she just sticks it with the rest of the money that she had collected from the other families. Suddenly I look down and realize that I gave her the wrong stack of money! And I hadn't previously counted how much spending money we had left!!! After a few minutes of trying to sort through who had given her what, I think we were able to work our way backwards and get our money back. I just wanted to kick myself! And poor Thuy! She felt so bad for it, and she wasn't even the one who did it!

Anyway, I think we got all the money we had started with, so it was ok. It's a good thing that Thuy didn't have a bunch of money to make change with!!!

So that's all for now. We are off to Ha Long Bay for the day. Hope everyone has a great night!

Day 4-Monday

We spent most of today doing some shopping. It's been very interesting bargaining with the various vendors. They say that you should ALWAYS bargain. The vendors always quote americans higher prices, and if you DON'T bargain, it makes them take advantage of more foreigners.

Mark seemed to be a street vendor magnet! They followed him and followed him! For example, this lady REALLY wanted Mark to buy a Vietnam phrase book. She quoted him 130,000 dong. We say no, so she says 110,000. We say no again, she says she'll give us the book and postcards for 120,000 dong. Again we say no. She asks us what we want to pay. We try to tell her nothing, but she keeps following us and offering us all sorts of combinations of items for all different prices. That's just one example!

For lunch we stopped at this little place that had all kinds of different foods. Both Mark and I got the Singapore fried rice. It was pretty good. I thought it was pretty interesting that it came with a salad, garlic bread, and two onion rings. Weird combination...

After lunch we went back to the hotel and rested for awhile. Then we walked over to the Somerset to go over fees with Thuy. We've decided against expediting the passports, as we're not sure it will make any difference in the long run.

After meeting Thuy we went over to a marketplace. We did a lot of shopping there as well. They had a dog butcher shop! They had whole skinned dogs! Face, teeth, everything! It was crazy!
From there we went to a mall like place and did some more shopping. On the way home, it started POURING rain. We were really soaked by the time we got back to the hotel. We just ordered a pizza to be delivered to our room and here we are.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Ha Long Bay. We should have lots of pictures so be on the lookout!

SIDEBAR #1:
Certain people don't seem to be answering my emails...I'm a little curious how my Sammi and
Raj are doing!!!

SIDEBAR #2:
I was rereading my previous post and I must make a correction. I was trying to tell you how expensive land was in Hanoi. I mentioned that a 40 sq meter piece of ONLY land coast between 200-300 USD. And it all had to be paid for upfront. What I MEANT to say was 200,000-300,000 USD!!!!


Here are some pictures of our hotel. This is the breakfast common area.

These are some items that we purchased today--items that Mark did not bargain for...
The rest are just pictures of our room!

Day 3-Sunday

First, Happy Mother's day to everyone!!!

Today was made the 2.5 hour trip out to the orphanage. It was very long and bumpy! It was interesting seeing how people lived outside of the city. It's really amazing how simple the Vietnamese live. There were tons and tons of shops and houses all along the way. There were many, many cows and water buffalo's roaming the streets the whole way. Apparently, water buffalo are similar to cats in that they wonder around and then are able to find their own way home!!!

Also, land is VERY expensive in Vietnam. You will notice that most houses are very small, but several stories. This is because of the price of land. In Hanoi, a 40sq meter (430sq ft) piece of land will go for 200-300 US DOLLARS! That the land by itself, not including the house. So they have to build 3-5 stories just have enough room. Out side of Hanoi in the smaller cities it would go for about 100 USD for the land. Still really expensive when you consider that the average income in Vietnam is 300 USD per year! On top of all that, you have to pay for the land upfront, no loans!

Anyway, here are some pictures from our drive:

After the orphanage visit we stopped for lunch at an Authentic Vietnamese place. It was definitely an experience, I'm really glad we went!

This is a picture of the actual building that ate at.

This is what was originally brought out to the table. I forgot to get a picture, but a little later they brought plates of fish.

Apparently you take all this stuff and make kind of like a taco with it out of rice paper. (The bus driver showed us!) Mark wouldn't try it, but I was all about it, as you can see. He made fun of me for eating paper... I guess some of us are more adventurous than others!

This was a type of soup that you put with rice. I loved that the fish still had its fins! It wasn't terrible, although not sure I would eat it on my own.

And last, but not least, we do have baby pictures!

We stopped at a big orphanage first because that's where one of the babies were. The orphanage itself was kind of nice. By nice, I just mean clean and well taken care of. We were taken into this room that was filled with babies on bamboo mats with mosquito netting surrounding them. We didn't see many older children, as I assume that school was in session.

There were these two little boys that just broke my heart though. They were probably both around 5 years old. I assume that one of them never got adopted because he had club hands. The first thing that he did when I walked in was slowly walk over to me and put his arms around me and hugged me! It totally broke my heart. He was smiling ear to ear and didn't want to let go of me!!! The other boy was very quiet and reserved, he just kind of watched what was going on.

After that, we traveled another 15 minutes to the smaller orphanage and met Chloe! She was just so much more beautiful and precious in real life than you can imagine looking at her pictures! I can't even describe how it felt to see her in person for the first time. She is definitely a tiny little thing. Most of the other babies from our group were younger than her, but she was the smallest. The baby from the other orphanage was the only one smaller than her. But she is just the cutest thing, and she looks very healthy. She didn't cry the whole time! She was very awake and alert and looked like a genuinely happy baby.

You could tell that her nannies really cared about the babies. We asked one of the nannies if we could take her picture with Chloe and you should have seen her face light up!

We found out how to pronounce her vietnamese name. It's kind of hard to write, as vietnamese is a tonal language, but here goes. Luong = Lu ah.

I know you guys have been waiting, so here goes!

Mark is a little squinty eyed in the picture, so I'm sure he's going to be thrilled that I posted this, but I thought it was a cute picture of her... :)

Here's a picture of Chloe with one of her nannies.

And finally, the first family portrait!

I think today will be a day filled with sightseeing and shopping. I'll post more later...hope everyone's having a great day!

Night 2-Day 12

We went to dinner at this place called Al Fresco. It had western food: ribs, burgers, pizza, etc. We got a pizza called Spicy Chicken Delight or something like that. Not very Vietnamese. But it was good. We also had calamari to go with it :) .

So we are leaving at 9:45 tomorrow to make the 2 hour trip to the orphanage to see the babies. We'll get to spend an hour or two there. We'll be taking lots of pictures then. Unfortunately it looks like the G&R ceremony won't be until Wednesday at the earliest, possibly Thursday. Seems like things keep getting pushed further and further. Hopefully this will be the last delay that we have to deal with.

So we ended up staying at the Heart Hotel. There definitely is a lot of noise here. This afternoon we had to put up with the sound of a jack hammer going at it. Fortunately noise doesn't bother me too much, so it wasn't a big deal. Other than that, I think this hotel is great. It's clean, has nice furniture, the refridgerator is always stocked, free breakfast, WIFI in the room, not much I can complain about. It's nicer that most hotels I've stayed at over in the US.

I'll fill you in on everything once we got back tomorrow...hope everyone's day goes well!

Day 2-May 12th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH! Wish we could be there, but wanted to wish you a happy birthday.
Today we got up and had our first meal in Vietnam.

The hotel includes free breakfast. We each got this huge piece of bread that I guess they give to everyone. I ordered Chocolate Pancakes and Mark got an omellate. The pancakes weren't really pancakes though, more like a dough thing.


After breakfast, we and another family went walking around the city looking at different shops, getting an idea of what we want to buy. It's definitely a different world out here. It's hard not being able to speak the language, as a lot of people come up and try to talk to you.

We had a couple of beggers following up around for awhile, and man are they relentless. (although harmless)

We decided to try to make our way to the Somerset Grand to check at the market they have there. We really had no idea where we were going and were relying on directions from people who really didn't speak English. We got totally lost! Then of course we got stuck in a torrential downpour, although it only lasted a few minutes. After an hour or so we finally got our bearings and made to the Somerset. We decided to have lunch there as well. Mark had a chicken, bacon, and tomato panini while I had a chicken and avacado sandwich. Both were pretty good and I would say pretty american. One interesting thing was that you have to pay extra if you want your drink diet...

After lunch we made our way back to our hotel. On the way we discovered a salon a few doors down from our hotel. We went back to our rooms and then Mark and I ventured back to the salon. I had a manicure and pedicure while Mark got an hour massage. For the massage, manicure, and pedicure it cost a total of $18. The manicure and pedicure weren't anything special, in fact I could have done just as good a job if I had done it myself. Had I paid for it what I would have had to pay back home, I would definitely not have been satisfied, but at $9, I couldn't complain. The hour massage was only $9 as well. At that rate, we are definitely going back before we leave!

Now we are just hanging back at the hotel. We are supposed to meet the other families along with Thuy and her sister Emmy for dinner at 6. I'm not sure where we are going, although I hope it's somewhere vietnamese.

I'm pretty sure that we are going to have an orphanage visit tomorrow. We're pretty excited about that! Our G&R ceremony has been pushed back though. Originally we had been told that it would be on Monday, which is why we had to get here so early. But the morning we left we found out that they wouldn't be able to do it that day. We're being told that we will definitely have it by Wednesday, possibly Tuesday, but we'll see. I'm not going to get my hopes up...

We made it...Finally!

Wow, that was a long trip!

Our flight from Indianapolis to Chicago started off on the wrong foot. We had checked all of our bags then went to go through security. Apparently I didn't read the rules good enough because we had a bunch of liquid, gels, and pastes that we couldn't take along with us. I guess they all have to be in containers less than 3oz. We ended up losing a jar of vaseline, and our baby shampoo and lotion. So looks like Chloe won't be getting a bath! :)

I knew we were going to be in a bigger mess because in another carry on suitcase were all of our toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, soap, toothpaste, etc.). We got caught with that stuff as well. Luckily the airport people were nice enough to repack our stuff, stick all the unallowed stuff in this toiletry bag we brought, and they went down to the baggage area, found our bags, and put them in there. However, I asked if I could have the other stuff that they confiscated back, they said no. Thieves!

So our flight was about 40 minutes to Chicago. Not bad. Once we got to Chicago things went pretty smoothly. We met up with Ally and her family, and Lucy and Joe (other families traveling with us). It was nice to have others to talk to during our layovers.

So then was our flight from Chicago to Japan. Twelve hours. Honestly the worst twelve consecutive hours that I've spent in a LONG time! I never thought about what 12 hours in the air actually would be like. Our seats were super cramped, I never got comfortable one time during that whole flight, my feet were super swollen, got a bunch of busted blood vessels on my arm... I was honestly ready to be done flying for the rest of my life after 2 hours! I never thought that flight would end. I'm not sure how much it would have been to upgrade to first class, and I know that before we left I would have said I had no need to, but after this, I think I would pay a lot of money!!! I am just dreading the thought of making the return trip, and add on top of that with a baby...although I know in the end it will be all worth it.

Plus sides of that flight, they fed us. A lot. And made sure we had something to drink at all times. I got to watch two movies...Music and Lyrics & Freedom Writers. Both were good.

Once the flight was over, we had a few hours layover in Japan. I have to say that the people at that airport and the crew on Japanese Airlines were so, so friendly. We had a great experience as far as that was concerned. Not only did we get great service, everyone was always so friendly and wanted to make sure you were completely taken care of.

Our last flight was from Japan to Hanoi. This was a 5 1/2 hour flight. I was super tired by then and just wanted to sleep. What was nice about this plane was that the armrests moved up and down. Our flight wasn't that full, so there were a bunch of extra seats. I was able to find an empty row of three seats, pull the armrests up, and sleep. That was nice.

Then finally we arrived in Hanoi. Man, is it humid! Even with air conditioning on!

Thuy met us at the airport with flowers, which was really nice. She had three vehicles ready to transport four families to the hotels. Three of the families (including us) are staying at the same hotel, while the fourth family was at a different one. However, somehow there was a mix up and we ended up at their hotel instead of ours! But we finally made it and here we are!

Observation:

So I've seen pictures and video's of the traffic in Hanoi. But its really something that you have to see for yourself! It's crazy, crazy, crazy. We are driving to our hotel, after 10pm, and there are motorbikes everywhere. And they just go anywhere. There were lanes, but cars would just drive down the middle! We saw one guy on a motorbike with his chihuahua as his front passenger, which was pretty funny.

Anyway, I think we are going to try and get settled and I'll write more tomorrow!

NEWS!

So we are officially leaving for Vietnam on the 10th of May! We will get there Friday night at 9:50pm. That means about 10:50am friday local time. So we will have been in flight (or laid over) for about 25 hours!!!

We will be (hopefully) posting pictures and updating as we go, so be sure to check back here frequently!

Also, we are having a little celebration thingie this Friday, the 4th from 5-8 or whenever at my Mom's. Anyone who is reading this is invited, if I haven't talked to you, feel free to call me or my mom.

Our flight back is scheduled for June 1st. We will arrive back in Indianapolis at about 3:30pm on Saturday the 2nd. That time is subject to change, as if we get done early, we will try to fly back early. If things get held up, we'll be later. Actually I will be later, as Mark HAS to make the flight back so that he can work Saturday night. So there's a possiblity of us coming back seperately. Hopefully that doesn't happen though!

Sneak Preview

Here are my herbs: Cilantro, Basil, Marjoram, and Parsley. I'm also going to be planting some Spearamint and Chives.

These are my tomato plants.


These are a shot of all of them!

On the left are my sweet red peppers, on the right are jalepenos.

These are my melons-cantaloupe.

I'm thinking about ripping all of this out and using the space for some of my herbs and produce. Thoughts???

Can anyone tell me what kind of flowers these are? Daffodils maybe?

Random Mumblings...

In light of recent comments, I am back to post something new. I am having a hard time thinking of things to say that others would find interesting tonight, but I'll try.

I am really excited about my (future) farm. Really, everyone should be quite impressed with how I've done. In between working a kazillion hours at work, I've been taking pretty darn good care of my plants!

My basil, marjoram, parsley and cilantro are growing awesome. So are my tomatoes, red peppers, melons, and jalepenos. Today I decided that I needed a few more plants just in case some of the others didn't make it, so I planted 20 more. (4 tomatoes; 4 jalepenos; 4 melons, 4 red peppers, 2 zucchini, and 2 cucumbers).

I know that really I should start small, but as most of you know, a lot of times that isn't in my vocabulary. I also want to go look for some leaf lettuce and asparagus. My problem is that I have all these plants now, and I really don't know how to take care of them once I actually put them in the ground. I really hope they turn out well. It will be completely awesome to have fresh produce.

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As most of you guys know, things have been pretty hectic in our lives recently. Hopefully that will slow down for me after the next few weeks. It seems like i just get home in time most nights to want to relax and get ready for bed. I don't have time to do a lot of the things I really want to get done.

That being said, Mark has been pretty awesome in picking up some of that slack. He's had to start doing a lot of the grocery shopping, dishes, etc. He's been taking care of a lot of things that I just don't have time for. So, I just wanted to say I really appreciate that!!!

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Well, I'm kinda tired so I am going to get some sleep. I'll post more later. Hopefully this tides anonymous over until later... :)

Have an awesome day!

"We witness a miracle every time a child enters into life.But those who make their journey home across time & miles,growing within the hearts of those who wait to love them,are carried on the wings of destiny and placed among us by God's very own hands."--- Kristi Larson

Medieval Contraptions on Friday the 13th

Dogs

Isn't she cute?!?!?!
Everyone's Resting...
He's a little cute too...
Sometimes they do rest...

PRIZE FOR BEST CAR DEALERSHIP!

CAR

So we've been messing around with this Jeep Patriot thing for a while now. Originally, I had talked to someone at Obrien Jeep in Greenwood, but we ended up going to Fletcher Jeep in Franklin because they actually had a Patriot in that we could test drive.

Immediately I knew that I liked the sales person from Obrien better, as the guy at Fletcher had no clue about the things he was letting come out of this mouth. The guy at Obrien, he was a bit more knowledgeable, but more importantly, if he didn't know the answer, he went and looked the answer up.

Case in point: Fletcher guy keeps insisting to me that air conditioning comes standard on the Patriot. However, that is not the case. I know its not the case because its an option that you have to add on, and it costs $950. He argues with me about it, even though he's showing me print outs on some Patriots that clearly show that the air conditioning is an option. After pointing it out to him three times, he finally relents.

So he doesn't have in stock what we want, and when we expressed interest ordering it, he totally blew it off and said that he can just get one from another dealership, no problem.

My initial thought? This guy is an idiot. I can't see any dealership being willing to trade with him, especially if they are semi close. Dealerships aren't able to keep the Patriots in stock, and most don't have any at all in. A dealership isn't just going to give one away when they know they'll be able to sell it, but whatever.

So I call this guy the next week and he insists that I give him a little more time, that he's trying really hard to get it in. He tells me that he knows that we want our car NOW, and that's what he's trying to do. (Sidebar: We never said or implied that we were in a hurry, actually to the contrary, we said we'd be willing to wait to order one in, but again, whatever.) A couple days later I call back and get the same thing, and he asks me to give him another week. (He's also irritated with me because I won't agree to a different color. I originally told him black, but later said I would be fine with silver too. But he wanted me to accept a Jeep Green one. No thanks.) So we do wait another week. Nothing.

So Mark calls to set up an appointment to order one. Very reluctantly, the guy sets something up and then makes the following comment to Mark:

"No offense, but I really wanted to sell a car in March...not May."

So obviously this experience has been about him getting what he wants, not us.

I try to convince Mark to go to Obrien Jeep or Shadeland Jeep, but he doesn't want to deal with anyone else, he thinks it'll be a hassle. (He would have to fill out another credit application, plus deal with another sales person) I point out that by the time he drives down to Franklin, he could have already done all that, but then he gave me some line about how the guys already done a lot of work on our behalf. Personally, I wouldn't say A LOT, and I think it was more on his behalf than ours. But whatever.

So Mark goes and orders the car. He calls me and lets me know that he did it. I ask him how much it came too, he says he doesn't know, he didn't ask. And apparently the guy didn't tell him or give him any information on it. In Mark's defense, he had just gotten off work after working a 12 hour overnight shift. He just wanted to go home and sleep.

So I call the guy to get the price. He tells me. After thinking about it some, I call back and ask if I can get an itemized copy of the order, what options were put on, etc. I would think that Chrysler would have sophisticated enough software to be able to do that. I was told he would fax it to me.

So I get the fax. What does it say you ask? Price * Sales tax = Total price. No details what so ever. So I just let it go.

Later Mark and I are discussing the options and looking at pictures when I think I point out the fog lights. He apparently thought the fog lights were something else that he thought looked stupid, so he said no when they asked about them. Had I gotten the print out, I would have caught that.

So Mark calls back about adding that option. They tell him that they can't just add that to the order and that it would have to be canceled and reordered and our wait would start over. He he says he'll talk to me and let him know.

We decide to go ahead and get them, but Mark wants me to call back and tell him, I assume because he doesn't want to deal with the guy. So I do. But the guy tells me that there's no way to do that because the order has already been placed. And that we would have to add them after market. After listening to him tell me that its too late for a few minutes, I tell him that he told my husband that the order would just have to be canceled and a new order placed. After a slight pause, he was like, "yeah, I guess we can do that." So I tell him to please do that. Needless to say, the man wasn't pleased with me.

So that's all about that...and that's just the Readers' Digest version!

Love you all!

Due to my lack of sleep and work schedule, all my days seem to flow together and I have a little trouble keeping my days straight. Not to mention what the stress and lack of sleep has done to my memory...so I'm gonna do my best to post interesting happenings since the last post.

I can't remember when my last post was, and I'm too lazy to go back and check before I write this, but I planted some herbs on Monday. Dill, Marjoram, Parsely, Chives, Cilantro, and something else, I can't remember. I am very excited to say that they have already started sprouting! Plus then on Tuesday I planted some jalepeno peppers, red peppers, canteloupe, and tomatoes. The melons have begun to sprout already as well!!!

As you guys know, we sent our documents over to Vietnam already. I've been really stressing because we had to resend an application and some pictures, and our documents are getting ready to expire. If they expire, we have to start everything over again. By expiring, I mean they have to be submitted to the IAD before they hit the six month mark. That would REALLY suck.

But just 10 minutes ago, I got the following email:

Hello Angel, I just spoke to Thuy she said that your dossier has been handed in. They are waiting for a list of children from the orphanage's that we work with to come in so that they can match you. They thought this would happen next week.

So I am pretty excited!!!

I've been thinking about this a lot here recently. I think that no matter what happens, we will end up with the child that we were meant to have. It's been a long road to get here, and stressful, but I know that it will be worth every single bit of it.

Just another day...

Man! I have to tell you I am SO, SO exhausted. I, of course, worked crazy hours all week. And then I worked an eight hour day today and yesterday. I'm really a little irritated that I've had to do that, because I haven't had a chance to really enjoy this nice weather!

So a lot has happened in this last week, so I better get to it!

The main thing was our water situation. Monday, I had a well company come out to look at our well and give us an estimate. (we had water, the pressure just wasn't right) He told me that to fix what needed to be fixed, it would be 600-750. I said ok, as I didn't really have much of a choice, as it needed fixed. An hour and a half later, all they succeeded in doing was getting the well pump stuck and leaving us without water. Oh, and he wanted to charge me $225 for it. For not repairing anything. And they told us that it would probably be about 3,000 to fix and that we might want to consider city water.

We decided to go ahead and go the city water route. After a series of subcontractor quotes, we finally got one to connect us for $2,480. Plus we had to pay a fee to the water company of 700. PLUS, we have to pay a monthly surcharge of $53 with our water bill for 240 months. If you do the math, that's 13,000!!!! Luckily our home owner's insurance reimbursed us $2,400, so it was really only about $800 our of our own pocket, plus the $53/month charge.

On a brighter note, I planted some herbs yesterday. I think some chives, sweet basil, parsley, cilantro, dill, and marjoram. Not sure how long they take to grow, but I hope its quick! I will plant some more outside, once the "danger of the last frost" has passed, whenever that may be.

Last but not least, I still think Daylight savings time sucks. And I especially think it sucks that I lose an hour of sleep during tax season. As if I don't suffer enough from lack of sleep... ;)

I'M BACK...FOR NOW....

So I have to tell you that this past month or so has been absolutely madness. I'm not sure I remember ever being so chronically exhausted. I have been working 16 hour days, plus Saturdays and Sundays. I haven't had time to do a lot of things, and Mark is only available when most people are sleeping. So my point is for nobody to take it personally, as things will slow down here after awhile.

Note worthy items:

• I think that we have decided on a new vehicle. We are going to go with the 2007 Jeep Patriot. We will be trading in Mark's Scion. The Patriot will fit in with our lifestyle a little better, plus it gets awesome gas mileage, better than the Scion. And plus it's a vehicle that we both decided on. If all goes well, we will probably have it this week.
• We finally got our paperwork submitted. It's been an ordeal, but I think we have finally got it all taken care of. We had to submit an application and photos separately, and once I know that they have arrived in Vietnam, I will be able to finally stop stressing about it. Special thanks to my mom for saving us in the photo disaster!!! Also, since I'm on the subject of thanking people: Dad Hunter-Thanks for getting us the green slip info so quickly. Jason-Thanks for shoveling our driveway. You went above and beyond what I expected. Marty-Thanks for fixing our pipes and restoring our water, we really appreciate it.
• I think a pipe cracked on our well pump. Our water pressure has never really returned to normal, sometimes I can take a shower, sometimes I can't. A guy is supposed to come out and look at it tomorrow, so we'll see. He says it will probably be less than a thousand dollars to fix--although I was hoping he would say less than $100. But oh well, I suppose that's the way it goes.

So this spring I had high hopes at trying my hand at a garden. However, my hopes have been all but dashed when I was informed that it's too late to start right now. If anybody can give any advice I would appreciate it. We bought seeds for: Watermelon, cantaloupe, green beans, snow peas, cucumbers, zucchini, jalapenos, red peppers, etc.

Also, I think we need some advice on getting grass back. When do we put grass seed down? Do we need fertilizers? Weed killers?

Last, we really need to put trim down in our dining room. I've been researching it, and I think that we can do it. But I think that we need to borrow a miter saw or something like that from someone... plus I need someone to come with me and show me what to buy.

Adoption and other Misc updates

So I'm thinking that we are probably going to go with the other adoption agency. I think we've decided that the wait is too long with FTIA, although they are a great agency. That's one of the problems that you can encounter with new programs...

So we have to have our dossier submitted by the end of next month, otherwise I would have to redo all of our documents. Although the agency has referrals ready, we would not be able to travel at the required time.

If we submit our dossier sometime in the middle of March, it would potentially put us at a May/June travel time. But that's just an estimate. Could be later. Don't know how long the stay will end up being either. Should know more later.

I'm going to have one more conversation with a lady who is adopting through this agency right now before we make our final choice, but this is probably what we will do.

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So I thouught we would have our pipes fixed by this morning. Didn't happen. We did fix everything that we tried to fix, but there was one more leak that we didn't catch. So another day without water.

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Hopefully my car will be free and clear tonight and I can actually get out of the garage.

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I think that's all the updates that I have for now.

Update

Well, the space heater didn't seem to be doing any good in unfreezing the lines, so after I got back from my mom's (taking a shower), I went out there with my hair dryer. I blow dried the pipes for about half an hour, but it didn't seem to do much good. So I left it out there for a little bit and kept checking it, moving it around.

SO FINALLY IT WORKED!!! WE HAD WATER!!!!

Unfortunately the water was spraying all over the place. Yes, our pipes burst. In 4-5 different places. So we are officially without water, no nope of it coming back. Marty is going to come over on Friday and see if we can get the pipes switched out.

I can't remember if I told this to Mark or not (but maybe he'll read it tonight), but when he gets home tomorrow morning, I'll take his car to my mom's, take a shower, then go to work. (Because my car isn't going anywhere anytime soon)

And just so we are clear, I already understand that this is my fault for not making sure that the garage closed all the way, so if you feel the need to keep reminding me, I already know that.

Days of our Lives

Don't know if I mentioned this in a previous post, but our pipes froze a couple of weeks ago and we had no water for a weekend. Luckily once I figured out the problem, I got a space heater and we had water within 20 minutes.

So work has been getting busier and busier, and I am working a lot of hours now. With the snow and ice that came in Monday night/yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it to work, although I thought more than likely I would. And I did. But I only worked until about six, as the partners were concerned with everyone getting home before it got dark.

My drive to and from work was fine. The problem was when I pulled into our drive way. I got about 1/4 of the way into it when my car started getting stuck. At this point I had to make a decision as whether to leave it there or attempt to get it into the garage. I wasn't sure what the whether was supposed to be like last night, and the thought of having to deal with a snow/ice covered car didn't appeal to me, so I tried to get it into the garage. I made it without too much trouble, although I took awhile. I had to go forward a little, reverse, go foward, reverse, etc until I got into the garage. But I make it. Actually it's about 5:45 at this point. I forgot to close the garage after grabbing the mail. Mark had to leave for work around 6:30. When he left, he called me to tell me to close the garage. I was in the middle of doing something, so I didn't do it right then. He texted me a little before 9pm to ask me if I did it. I hadn't, so I got up right then and went and closed it.

Then when Mark got home at 8am this morning, he informs me that I didn't close the garage. Well, I know for a fact that I went out there and did it, so the only thing I can think of is that snow had drifted into the garage, and it must have hit it at the bottom and then came back open.

So we have no water today. Last time it unfroze with the space heater in about 20 minutes, this time its been on there since 815 or so, and as of right now, no such luck. Plus, I am stuck in the garage, and Mark is stuck at the end of the driveway. So I can't go to work. Actually, I can't do a lot of things...brush my teeth, take a shower, wash the dishes, feed the dogs, etc.

But at least I have the day off I suppose...

A Long Time Coming...

So it probably doesn't come to a surprise to some of you that sometimes I do things without thinking about it, or without a seemingly logical reason for doing it.

The other day I was talking on my cell phone to a friend of mine. He was driving back from out of town and telling me about his trip. Mark is upstairs in the shower at this time.

To set the scene, I am in my living room. If you've seen our living room since we rearranged the furniture, you know what it looks like. Everything was pretty clean in the room, except for that Rajah had somehow dragged a basketball sized medicine ball out from underneath a chair in the corner.

So I am mindlessly walking around the living room listening and talking on the phone. Here's the part that you might or might not understand. My mind is always at work and sometimes I have a really hard time focusing on one thing. Even when I am paying close attention to something, maybe 5-10% of my brain is subconsciously focused on something else. While I am completely aware of the thoughts going on, I don't really pay much attention. Kind of like sometimes when you drive the same route everyday, you realize you at work and just kind of drove auto-pilot.

So anyway, back to my phone conversation. I am talking on the phone and something catches my attention on the ceiling. Honestly, I think it was just that we have textured ceilings, and I that the pattern was interesting. So while I am on the phone, I step up on the coffee table and look closely at the pattern. Again at this time, 95% of my mind was focused on my conversation. So now I am pacing back and forth on the table. Engaging in a conversation. To the point that David didn't know that there was anything distracting me. Suddenly, midsentence, he hears me scream at the top of my lungs and the phone eventually goes dead!!! I keep trying to call him back, but it keeps going to his voicemail. Finally a couple minutes later I get a hold of him, and he makes sure everything is ok. Only half jokingly, he says that he didn't know whether he should call the police or something!!!

So what happened, you ask???

Well. As I was talking, my subconsious brain must have thought that it would be cool if I could jump off of the table and land on the medicine ball all on one foot. Now this all happened so fast, but that's exactly what I tried to do. I hopped off the table with one foot and tried to land on the medicine ball. Only the ball was round and of course when I landed on it, it immediately went rolling, causing me to let out a scream, and fly off of it landing on my face! If you can picture my living room, I jumped towards the step in the dining room. I was VERY lucky because I had put my hand out to catch my fall, and had I not landed on my hips first, I would totally have a broken wrist right now.

Now somehow during this fall, I had hit the mute button on my phone, a function that I didn't even know existed, so I didn't know how to turn it off. So I hear David calling my name, but there's nothing I can do about it. So I imagine it must have been pretty scary to him to hear me scream like that, and then have the phone go dead. And since I was trying to call him when he was calling me, the phone was going straight to my voicemail, so it was like my phone had gotten cut off.

Luckily, all I ended up with was a very sore wrist and I strained a tricep muscle. And before anyone says anything, I don't know what possessed me to do that...its not something I would have ever done intentionally. Really, it was quite a weird experience....

Teaser

So I've done some stupid things in the past. Things where afterwards you kind of wonder what possessed you to do it in the first place. I had one of those moments last night. And I definitely suffered the consequences from it. I'm probably lucky that I didn't end up in the emergency room!

Tune in later to find out what...

And no fair anybody asking Mark about it...That's cheating!

Update revisited.

• We got our paperwork back from the consulate yesterday. I'm a little frustrated that I paid extra for tracking and confirmation, however according to UPS, the package hasn't been mailed yet. But the important thing is that we now have it. Now we need to nail down a decision on the agency.
• Yesterday I finally was able to park in the garage. However, in the process, my new lap top box was thrown out. With UPC code still attached. Meaning I don't get my rebate. :(
• Work is very frustrating right now...hoping to be able to work that out soon.
• Chopped my hair off again last weekend. It's shorter than it's been in a while.

That's all that's been going on recently...

Update

So I don't really have a reason for my lack of posts. It's not that I have been busy with work, as that's not really been the case. It's not that I haven't had time, as I seem to have a lot of time on my hands these days.

Update on things:

Job is going ok. Not too busy. I don't regret switching jobs, but I really miss my friends from the old place and the fun we used to have.

Adoption is slowly moving along. Vietnam issued new regulations at the beginning of January, so we had to wait and make sure there wasn't going to be more that we had to do. We got our last form, at the end of December, but we've run into a problem finding time to get the state seal put on the remaining documents, so that I can get them authenticated by the Vietnamese Consulate. Mark was finally able to wake up during the day so that he could get that taken care of last Friday, and Saturday I got the documents mailed off to the Vietnamese Consulate. Unfortunately we are running into a time crunch with the documents. None can be more than six months old, and sometime during February, my medical form will reach that date. So hopefully we can get everything submitted by that time so that I don't have to redo it.

I took my third section of the CPA exam-Auditing. Hopefully I did well, I don't know.

So for the next few weeks, I think I'm going to try and work on some things around the house:

• Replace the cabinet hardware in my bathroom
• Replace towel bars in my bathroom
• Paint Kitchen
• Trim in Dining room

I would love to be able to park my car in the garage again. Unfortunately I can't because it's loaded with boxes. So if you read this Mark, and you have nothing better to do, maybe you can do that. And that can be my birthday present.

I can't remember if I put this in my last post, I know that I told somebody about this, but we are looking for the following items:

An area rug that looks like it belongs in a girls room.

A crib set that is not too expensive.

If anybody sees anything like this, please let us know.

Well, I will sign off for now!

I'm back!

I would apologize for my lack of posts here recently, but I'm sure that nobody noticed. ;)

HOUSE

We have nixed the open house idea. If anyone wants to come over and see it, feel free. There are a couple of projects that we still have left to do, but as a whole, its coming together nicely. No if anyone is interested in seeing it, feel free to stop by.

JOB

My new job is awesome. Don't regret moving at all. I think it's going to work out really well.

ADOPTION

Things are kind of at a stand still. We are waiting to receive out I-171H. Once we get this form, we will be good to go. We're getting Chloe's room ready. Right now we are looking for a fairly inexpensive rug for her to play on. I think we want it to be a girly rug.

JUJUTSU

Mark got his brown belt over the weekend. He did a good job on his test. Only two more tests and he will be a black belt. After his next test he'll be able to wear spandex shorts and a skirt.

I got my yellow belt. Which really is quite unfortunate. I was hoping to be able to stay a white belt, but no such luck.

NEW INTEREST

So I've decided that I want to take up a new hobby: Photography. I've thought about this before, but never really done anything about it. I've kind of looked around for a photography class, but have been unable to find anything. So if anybody has any suggestions, feel free to let me know. I was at a bookstore over the weekend, and I remember seeing a digital photography book, so maybe after Christmas I will pick that up.


I suppose that I should go ahead and get back to work...I think this is all the news and updates I have for now. Let me know if I left anything out!

Get Together!

So we've been thinking... We've been/are doing a lot of stuff around the house (house related/baby related), and we think it would be nice to show everything off! Being that a lot of it is not done yet, I am having great faith that it will turn out nice...or at least better than my paint job in the office! :)
Plus, we thought it would be fun for everyone on both sides of the family to get together. And for Sammi and Rajah to get used to people.
That being said, we wanted to have a little "get together" at our house. I know its hard to coordinate schedules, especially with Christmas coming up, but here is what we were thinking:

December 17th- (Sunday)
December 22nd- (Friday
December 29th- (Friday)

Thoughts? Can you guys (or at least the two or three of your who actually read this:)) make it?

Oh...and can anyone guess what December 29th is???

Weekend in Review

Only 5 more days left at my current job. How awesome is that!?!? No more driving all the way up north. I stopped by my new place of employment on Friday and got to see my office again...it's really nice!!!

We didn't really get a whole lot done this weekend. With Mark's work schedule, I seem to spend a lot of time by myself, as he's sleeping and working. That means we really need to switch gears and start getting stuff done on the weekdays. My upcoming tasks for the next week:

• Drywall mud all along the base of the walls in the dining room.
• Finish the floor in the baby's room.
• Add quarter round to the baby's room and office.
• Paint Dining room.

On a different note, I can't tell you how excited we are that Terry and Dorothy are going to be adopting from Vietnam as well!! Our babies will be close to the same age, and I think it will be nice for them to get to know each other.

So we (Mark and I) have been having discussions with Sammi and Rajah about when little Miss Chloe comes home. They understand that they are going to have to start working on thier jumping on people. Unfortunately, they don't jump on us, so we can't do anything there. (They are very sheltered) So we need people and kids to come over so that they can practice.

Good Vibes going out:

Jason: Hope things go well tomorrow. And I hope things get easier.

Mom and John: Hope things get better with the house and that the people either close or else you get another offer. And hope things move right along with the Perkins property so that you can get it appraised and everything.

Dorothy and Terry: We hope that your guy's journey to your baby goes as smoothly as possible. I am sure there will be some bumps along the way, but we'll be here for you!

Leah: Hope things go/went okay in the Dominican Republic. Hope you have a safe trip.

Mom Hunter: Hope everything is going great and you don't have too much stress trying to take care of everything:)

EVERYONE ELSE: Have a great week!!! Love you all!