Summer Days

Guess Who's Coming for a Visit!?!?!

I'll give you a clue:

Actually this kinds of gives it away:) But we are pretty exciteded!!! Hopefully they'll both be a little happier than they are in this picture.

What a mess...

Most of you who know me, know that I don't particularly enjoy cleaning. To that end, I try to do things with Chloe that minimizes me having to clean as much as possible. For example, I try to keep her playing in one part of the house, we play outside as much as possible, and I don't give her messy foods to eat.

So tonight we're grilling out some chicken. We were playing outside when Chloe decided she was ready to come in. While I am doing some dishes, she's playing in the pantry with the canned goods, as she always does. I remember that the chicken is still cooking, so I leave her in the kitchen and run outside to grab the chicken real quick. I'm gone MAYBE 10 seconds at the most. Imagine my surprise when I come in to this:

What you can't see is that when I see this, I just sit down on the ledge/step (you can kinda see it in the bottom right) and watch her for a second, thinking about how much of a pain its going to be to clean up. I debate trying to find a broom VS grabbing the vaccuum. The vaccuum wins out, as I'm not exactly sure where my broom/dustpan is. So I run to the laundry room to grab it, and when I get back Chloe is riding through the mess on her Dora bike/car thing. So it ended up being a HUGE mess.

And here is a bonus picture:

More Video...

Here's Chloe doing some random acts....

And this shows how dramatic Chloe is and how easily she can be convinced she's not hurt...

So Chloe is VERY dramatic sometimes. This video is classic. To set the scene, I asked her if she could dance, then I turned on the video.

Happy Father's Day

It never ends...

So last weekend we had a lot of rain here. Unfortunately, the sump pump for whatever reason did not kick on, causing water to flood into the living room, kitchen, dining room/hallway, and downstairs bathroom. There wasn't a whole lot of water, but enough to cause the living room, dining room/hallway, and bathroom floors to need to be replaced. I can deal with replacing the flooring in the bathroom and living room, as I had planned on doing that at some point, but I JUST had the flooring done in the dining room/hallway. On the bright side, I think I'm going to go hardwood throughout and ceramic tile in the bathroom.

And get this: I think I'm going to try installing it myself. So anyone who wants to help me out...be sure to let me know:).

I'm basically screwed with the air conditioning. The guy basically said today that he's not going to do anything else. So looks like I start over and that was $4,000 down the drain. I guess on the bright side here, once I get someone in here I actually won't have to be hot any more.

A funny moment today:

I'm laying down reading while Chloe is taking a nap, when the doorbell rings. It's the mail guy. He's bring me the mail because there is a package that won't fit in my mailbox. This package is from a book club that does those automatic shipments and I always end up sending them back. The conversation kind of goes like this:

Mail guy: Here's your mail, the box wouldn't fit...
Me: Um...thanks. But can you take this back, I don't want it...
Him: Absolutely...you can refuse whatever you want.
Me: Thanks. Actually can you hang on a second...I have another one in my car that I've been meaning to drop off at a mail box.
Him: No problem.
(I run in the house, out the garage to grab it then head back to the front. As I'm handing it to him...)
Him: Here's my number in case you have any other packages you want to refuse.
(I'm debating what to say because I'm 99% sure that he was just trying to give me his number, but maybe he was serious. After a couple of seconds pass, I just start laughing. I can't help it.)
Me: I'm sorry! I didn't mean to laugh. That's not a service the post office offers is it? (Still laughing)
Him: No...I was just being nice.
Me: (Handing the number back) I won't be needing that...but I have to say that was a pretty good attempt. (Still laughing)
Him: Hey...I tried.

Yes he did.

Frustration

I have a love/hate relationship with my house. All 2,000 sq feet of it. And all 13,000 sq feet of yard. It's funny, as the very things I love about it I hate at the same time.

When I first saw this house, I knew it was the one I wanted. It was really such a spontaneous moment. We had just signed a new lease at our apartment, just gotten Rajah. I thought, Sammi and Rajah could REALLY use a place to run around. One day I just said, "Let's go look at houses. Just for fun, see what's out there." We looked at quite a few houses, but the problem was finding something suitable that was in our price range. When I say suitable, I mean nicer than our apartment. We found a bunch in our price range, just none that really excited us.

We really just walked through this house on a whim. I saw it online, saw it was in our price range, but there were no pictures, so we thought we would drive by. What really piqued our interest was that the sign out front said it was a tri-level. Well, there was no way I thought, I have to see this for myself. So we called for a walk through.

Walking into the house, I loved the tile entry way. You look to the left and there was this office/family type room with hardwood floors, which I loved. Go to the right, a bedroom. There was this ugly blue carpeting, but whatever. It was a room. Go up the hardwood steps, and there was a hallway with a bedroom on the left and right side and bathroom in the middle. The bathroom had a nice vanity and a whirlpool tub, which I loved.

Back downstairs from the entryway there is a hallway that leads to another bathroom and large laundry room, which I loved. A large dining room area and small, but nice and newly remodeled galley style kitchen. Not my dream kitchen, but it was definitely REALLY nice. Step up into a living room which has a sliding glass door the the large backyard. The back yard has a shed, a playhouse, and swingset. Oh yeah, did I mention it was big and fenced, perfect for the dogs?

I put a lot of work into making this house more my taste.

*I (along with my mom and brother) supervised/ripped off all the wall paper in Chloe's room, my room, and the office/family room.

*We repainted. We then ripped up all the carpeting in Chloe's room, my room and the downstairs bedroom. (I really did do all that myself). We got a floor sander and refinished all the hardwood floors. We stained and polyurethaned the floors.

*We pulled up the indoor/outdoor carpeting from the dining room, hallway, and put down laminate wood floors. We got rid of this hideous vinyl molding and put up new, and repainted the dining room and hallway. I worked really hard to strip and prime and paint over this hideous wood panel in the room.

*We converted from a well system to city water, as well as from septic to city sewer.

*We converted from baseboard heating and window air conditioning to central air and heating.

Those are the major improvements.

So now why do I hate it???

1) No dishwasher. This wasn't a big deal at first. But I hate doing dishes.

2) The house is so big. And Chloe can make a mess of it super fast. Then there's the laundry. Which while I admit would be the same no matter what, it just adds to the burden. So every night after Chloe goes to bed, I have to do dishes, laundry, pick up the kitchen, living room and dining room. I say pick up, because I don't really clean. After doing that, I really don't feel like doing much else. I won't even go into the last time the rest of the rooms have been cleaned. I won't even go into trying to pay bills, etc.

3) The yard is so big. It's awesome for Chloe to play in, but a headache with the upkeep. Right now I'm paying my brother to come over and mow, but still. I think its been over a year since any weedeating was done.

4) There's no place for Chloe to ride a bike, tricycle, etc. I have a driveway, but its gravel. Plus I live on a very busy road.

5) Neighbors-There's not really anyone for Chloe to play with. My next door neighbor on one side is eighty something years old and on the other side or 20 something guys with no sense of responsibility who spend every possible second trying to hit on me. (But they did send me a mother's day card, which was awesome) I'd really like to live somewhere where we can get to know the neighbors and Chloe would have someone to play with.

6) My (somewhat) newly converted heater/air conditioner does not work. I spent all winter freezing my @ss off, and now I'm sweating my @ss off. Seriously. No joke. It's actually hotter IN my house than outside of it. And it's currently 82 degrees outside. It's the kind of hot inside where you just can't bring yourself to do anything because of how hot it is. This is definitely a problem, as see #2.


So what is the solution????

Sell my house.

Perfect, right? Wrong.

Don't get me wrong, that's REALLY what I want to do right now. I want to sell my house, downsize, and move on to a new chapter in life and find a house that better suits our needs.

The problem?

1) Not enough equity in the house. We took out a home equity loan a few years back. If I could sell it myself, there wouldn't be a problem, I would actually come out ahead. The problem is that its definitely a buyers market and if I were to use a realtor, the commission and closing costs would take up all the equity. And forget my trying to keep the house in viewing shape.

2) It seems like a house in an addition would best match my desires/needs. The problem is that I don't want a cookie cutter home. I want a house with character. That's hard to find at a price I can afford.

3) At any rate, I wouldn't want to buy another house unless I planned on staying there for awhile. And I'm certainly not in a place to make any solid long term plans.

4) I could rent. But to get what I want I would probably end up paying a pretty significant amount more than what I'm paying now. And I know that people are going to say that I'm throwing money out the window by renting, but I'm throwing money away all over the place with this house too. And if I rent, I won't be responsible for all the repairs.

So I guess I'm not going anywhere. Mostly, I just want to not be hot and sweating. And cleaning all the time. :)

OCD on the swing set

Chloe has learned this fun new trick. Seems she's figured out that she can grab my hand and lead me to wherever she wants. She doesn't seem to do this to anything else.


When we go out back to play, she employs this tactic a lot, pulling me over to the swing set. Now, my back yard is a pretty good size, so what this usually entails is pulling me about a quarter of the way there, then insisting that a pick her up, followed by excited pointing to the swing set.
Now this swing set is definitely not one of those super fancy kinds you see all the time. Its (somewhat rusted) metal with a baby swing, two regular swings, and a set of rings. Here recently she's really taken to the "big girl" swings. But even so, apparently there is an order that we do things.


First, we swing in the baby swing. Then she moves to the big girl swing. Then back to the baby swing. Then she plays on the rings. Never to we deviate from this system. Two times today I tried to put her on the big girl swing first...it was disasterous. Trust me. It must be said routine EVERY time. Weird, I know.


But here are some pictures of her enjoying herself on her big girl swing...

Garden, Part II

If you guys remember, I started a "farm" last spring. I had tomatoes, jalapenos, green peppers, raspberries, black berries, blue berries, cantaloupe, zucchini, cucumbers, and a wide variety of herbs. But then we got Chloe's referral and after coming back I didn't much help with anything and just couldn't keep up with everything. So it failed...

This year I decided to try again...this time just a smaller garden though :) . We kind of got a late start, so today Chloe and I went out and got some starter plants. We got some tomatoes, patio tomatoes, banana peppers, Serrano peppers, jalapenos, green peppers, and red peppers.
After Chloe got to bed, I went out and got every thing planted except for the regular tomatoes. It was quite the sight, me out there in the rain, planting peppers...just ask my neighbors. They were nice enough to offer to do it for me. But no, I did it myself.

Some proof:

Patio Tomatoes

Pepper Garden

Chloe and I made some fresh, homemade salsa tonight. It was SO good. As most of you know, I LOVE salsa. But I've never tried making it fresh. Until tonight. And I thought I would try a mango salsa, just because it sounded good. So we went out and got some FRESH tomatoes, mango, onion, avocado, jalapenos, lime juice, garlic, and cilantro. Hand diced all of it, mixed it together, and here's what we got:

Trust me, it's SO good. Sadly, I very rarely do much in depth cooking these days. Its tough just cooking for Chloe and I, and if I do, we eat the same thing for days, which I hate. But we just went for it tonight. Tomorrow we are going to make either some grilled chicken breasts or tilapia and top it with the salsa. I think it'll be awesome. The only thing I'd really change about the recipe is to up the spiciness. I added an extra jalapeno, but it didn't do much. So next time I think that I'll either use some of the seeds, or try a hotter pepper. We'll see. Tomorrow I'm going to the farmers market to get some more produce to make again. :)

And last, no post would be complete without some pictures of the baby....

Mother's Day

Mother's Day will always be extra special...

Mother's Day--last year--was the day we first held Chloe in our arms.

Mother's Day 2007:

Mother's Day 2008

What a difference a year makes!!!

Spring Time...

So it finally happens...

I've avoided posting on this topic for awhile now as I have enough stress going on that it's been hard to sit and actually think about this enough to actually post my coherent thoughts.



Almost anyone involved in Vietnam adoptions know about the issues going on over there right now. The accusations of ethical violations, fraud, etc. Let me say now that this post is not meant to place blame or bash any specific adoption agency. And I would appreciate any comments related to specific agencies or accusations to be left off.



So there has been an official announcement that US adoptions with Vietnam will end as of September 1, 2008. All dossiers must be submitted by July 1, 2008, and as of September 1, only those families who have received a referral will be allowed to continue with their adoptions. For those of you who wish to read the specifics released by the US Embassy:



Announcement



Detailed Summary



I will say that the Vietnam's DIA (Department of International Adoptions) have denied these accusations. People say that the US is just bullying Vietnam.



To be honest, I don't know what to believe. I admit that I'm not the most unbiased person to talk to on the matter. I'm big on not believing everything that you hear. When I first got back from Vietnam, I was constantly having to defend my adoption and correct accusations that were being made about MY adoption experience. I would read things that people posted, and when I tried to correct them, i was being called a liar. What!?!?! I was the one there going through the situation!

I guess my point is that I wish people would only say/write about things that the KNOW to be true. That way information could be more reliable. It's scary how much people take things that other people say to be fact.

I urge everyone involved to read the two articles above from the US embassy. You don't have to believe everything that is contained in the reports, but make yourselves aware. Do your research. Come to your own conclusion.

No matter what side you fall on, it seems perfectly clear that there ARE problems.

But I guess my reasoning in posting isn't really to debate the issue of corruption and fraud.

How is this going to effect our babies? How is this going to effect Chloe's life??? I think that any responsible adoptive parent needs to consider this question. In my heart, I know that this will more than likely come up. Chloe, at some point, will be curious about where she came from. And it would be very irresponsible of me to believe that I can hide this information from her, nor would I want to.

In my heart, I really want to believe that Chloe's background was honestly given to us. That her birthmother willingly gave her up because she couldn't raise her. By her own choice, not based on promises that she would get her child back at some point, not because she couldn't pay a hospital bill, not because she was promised that she could visit her child whenever she wanted.

But in reality, there is no guarentee. So what do you do? I don't know what the answer to that is at this point.

All I can do is be honest with her. But it breaks my heart that she will have to deal with these things as she gets older. It really upsets me when people act like it won't matter--that all that matters is that she knows she is loved now. Because you know what? Chloe and all of these children have suffered a loss. And it's a loss that they are going to grieve for at some point, in some way. And it's something that none of us are really going to be able to comprehend because we've never had to experience it. And on top of this, they are going to have to deal with the accusations of widespread corruption and fraud.

I know Chloe is young now and its going to be a long while before we have to really deal with these things with her, I just think its important to start thinking about now. And I think that EVERY adoptive or future adoptive parent needs to also be thinking about how they will handle this. And I think that it will do a HUGE disservice to them to act like the problem doesn't exist. The problems are REAL. They do exist. The question might be to what extent.

No matter what you believe to be the truth though, the information is out there and its up to you how to explain it to your child.

I would also like to post the following websites:

Bring our Children Home

Voices for Vietnam Adoption Integrity

Like I said, I urge everyone to do their research and not to take everything at face value. Understand the differences between fact and opinion. First hand accounts and rumors/speculation. And most of all, don't just cover your eyes and ears and pretend this doesn't exists. Think about these things and how they are going to impact your life.

Just a Few Pictures...And points to anyone who can identify the tree in the middle....

Spring is in the Air

The weather has been SO great here recently. Chloe and I have really been taking advantage of being outside. We've been doing a lot of picnicing, playing, and gardening (I use this word VERY loosely).

Some of you may vaguely remember my attempt at a "farm" last spring/summer. Yeah, it didn't turn out very well with the sudden travel, new baby, and everything else. I kind of gave up on it midseason. Well, fear not, I'm going to take another stab at it. Only this time I'm going to be a little more conservative and realistic. I'll probably just stick with some tomatoes, jalepenos, and green peppers, possibly grean beans, and see what happens. I think Chloe will really be up for helping me this year. We'll see.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to in May:
*My "farm"
*Watching Chloe discover playing outside, in the water, etc.
*City Market Farmers Market. (Every Wednesday)
*500 Festival 5K (You might have to remind me that I said this, I might not find it so exciting once it actually gets here)
*Primary Election Day
*Memorial Day

So I've really been wanting to post some pictures, but unfortunately I can't for the life of me find my usb cable. So until then we will be picture free.

Bad Blogger, But I need a favor

I know, I know. It's awful.

But I've been without my computer for awhile now. It got a virus and has been out of commission. I ended up have to completely reinstall windows and lost a lot of things that I had saved.

Unfortunately, all the links on my favorites list are gone. Do you know what that means? I don't have all my favorite blog addresses anymore. So if you are reading, and you have a blog, if you can either comment with your address, or send me an email (amhunter82@yahoo.com) I would REALLY appreciate it!

Quick update:

Chloe had her 15 month well baby checkup last week. Remember how I said she was 23lbs??? Turns out I was wrong...or at least my scale was. She's only 19lbs. So not so much of an impressive weight gain. But what do you do. She's healthy and happy, what more could I ask for!?!? :)

World's Cutest Cubs Fan

Chloe