Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Christmas Eve . . . Er, Eve
Since my last writing, the semester at King has drawn to a close; our fall commencement was two weeks ago. I knew several of the graduates from my statistics class last spring, which made the experience more meaningful. However, I would have called it more memorable had one of the name-announcing marshals taken the $100 bet (not from me, but from a colleague) to read his names like a pirate. The cessation of classes means I have had more time to work on my dissertation research, provided I can get back into some semblance of a rhythm.
What could possibly disrupt me at this time of year, you ask? I thought you might. Since Sandi has to work both on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, we decided to head home to visit family this past weekend. This, of course, meant that the world had to go haywire. What started as a morning rain in Bristol became a snowstorm by the time Sandi got off work on Friday afternoon. Undaunted, we hit the highway, traveling at a rollicking speed of thirty miles per hour until we reached Wytheville. At that stage, we decided to stop at an open gas station, refuel, and break our wiper blades free of the ice that had accrued. It had taken our typical drive time to reach the halfway mark, which is pretty much what we had expected upon departure. We did not, however, expect to spend five hours sitting almost completely still on Interstate 77. After a dozen or so update text messages, a best-two-out-of-three rock-paper-scissors game, and four separate movements of less than two hundred feet, we were finally able to continue our journey at 2:30 AM. While we never saw any concrete evidence of a reason for the delay, we surmised from road conditions that 'the Man' had held us down while he got his roads plowed. Never had the BP station at exit 14 seemed so lovely. The remainder of the trip was slow but uneventful, save for the sighting of five -- count 'em, five -- snowplows traveling in single file along US Highway 52 once we entered North Carolina. Our weekend journey took us a mere thirteen hours, all told.
Once we finally got home and got a bit of sleep, things were more pleasant. On Saturday, we hung out with Sandi's family and watched G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra, which somehow managed not to wreck one of my childhood fantasies. We also played several rounds of Street Fighter IV before calling it a night. Sunday featured a birthday party for our youngest niece, Camryn, who has now been a part of our lives for a full decade. Man, that makes me feel old.
After a normal-time trip back to Tennessee, we have been busy with little things. For instance, we had put off a trip to the grocery store until after our voyage to North Carolina. We are quite prepared for the coming holiday, with cinnamon rolls and ham at the ready.
Take care, everyone!
What could possibly disrupt me at this time of year, you ask? I thought you might. Since Sandi has to work both on Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas, we decided to head home to visit family this past weekend. This, of course, meant that the world had to go haywire. What started as a morning rain in Bristol became a snowstorm by the time Sandi got off work on Friday afternoon. Undaunted, we hit the highway, traveling at a rollicking speed of thirty miles per hour until we reached Wytheville. At that stage, we decided to stop at an open gas station, refuel, and break our wiper blades free of the ice that had accrued. It had taken our typical drive time to reach the halfway mark, which is pretty much what we had expected upon departure. We did not, however, expect to spend five hours sitting almost completely still on Interstate 77. After a dozen or so update text messages, a best-two-out-of-three rock-paper-scissors game, and four separate movements of less than two hundred feet, we were finally able to continue our journey at 2:30 AM. While we never saw any concrete evidence of a reason for the delay, we surmised from road conditions that 'the Man' had held us down while he got his roads plowed. Never had the BP station at exit 14 seemed so lovely. The remainder of the trip was slow but uneventful, save for the sighting of five -- count 'em, five -- snowplows traveling in single file along US Highway 52 once we entered North Carolina. Our weekend journey took us a mere thirteen hours, all told.
Once we finally got home and got a bit of sleep, things were more pleasant. On Saturday, we hung out with Sandi's family and watched G.I. Joe: the Rise of Cobra, which somehow managed not to wreck one of my childhood fantasies. We also played several rounds of Street Fighter IV before calling it a night. Sunday featured a birthday party for our youngest niece, Camryn, who has now been a part of our lives for a full decade. Man, that makes me feel old.
After a normal-time trip back to Tennessee, we have been busy with little things. For instance, we had put off a trip to the grocery store until after our voyage to North Carolina. We are quite prepared for the coming holiday, with cinnamon rolls and ham at the ready.
Take care, everyone!
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving to All!
And to all a good night! That sounds off for some reason, but now is not the time to dawdle on such things. I have over two months of updating to do. Excited yet?
We have been officially awaiting placement for a year as of last month. This meant that we had to update our home study with Bethany. We got to do a fresh round of doctor's appointments, background checks, and financial records; fortunately, we were not required to update our fingerprints at this stage. We had a meeting with Mark after the October waiting families meeting, where we received a little pep talk to go along with the formalities and the box-checking and the whatnot. He made a point of noting that the wait can be discouraging -- which it is, at times. We were officially re-approved on October 29; if all goes according to my malevolent schemes, there will not be a second re-approval necessary. Insert your preferred diabolical laughter here.
We have an additional feline member of the household, of sorts. We have been adopted (oh, the irony) by one of the neighborhood cats. We have dubbed our new benefactor Prince, as Kakolookiyam is too much of a mouthful. Based on his unabashed sweetness and ready litterbox usage, we have surmised that he is an abandoned housecat. He is also as deaf as a post. No, this is not the typical selective deafness inherent with the species; we can readily sneak up on this cat if he does not see our approach. The various members of our household have adapted to him in their own unique ways: Ashe follows him around constantly, while Samus tolerates his existence (after her initial olive branch extension resulted in a pimp slap) and Peaches makes noises like this dude every time she sees him.
With today being Thanksgiving and all, and with us in Bristol rather than a Carolina to celebrate with family, we participated in our customary tree-trimming extravaganza. We made egg salad, bought a sliced ham, and ate way too many snacks while setting up our Christmas decorations. To be honest, Sandi had succumbed, so some decorating had actually been done before today. We still need to put our lights out on the porch; we ran out of sunlight getting our eighteen hojillion ornaments on the tree. I am finishing off our stock of little weenies as I write.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend, everyone!
We have been officially awaiting placement for a year as of last month. This meant that we had to update our home study with Bethany. We got to do a fresh round of doctor's appointments, background checks, and financial records; fortunately, we were not required to update our fingerprints at this stage. We had a meeting with Mark after the October waiting families meeting, where we received a little pep talk to go along with the formalities and the box-checking and the whatnot. He made a point of noting that the wait can be discouraging -- which it is, at times. We were officially re-approved on October 29; if all goes according to my malevolent schemes, there will not be a second re-approval necessary. Insert your preferred diabolical laughter here.
We have an additional feline member of the household, of sorts. We have been adopted (oh, the irony) by one of the neighborhood cats. We have dubbed our new benefactor Prince, as Kakolookiyam is too much of a mouthful. Based on his unabashed sweetness and ready litterbox usage, we have surmised that he is an abandoned housecat. He is also as deaf as a post. No, this is not the typical selective deafness inherent with the species; we can readily sneak up on this cat if he does not see our approach. The various members of our household have adapted to him in their own unique ways: Ashe follows him around constantly, while Samus tolerates his existence (after her initial olive branch extension resulted in a pimp slap) and Peaches makes noises like this dude every time she sees him.
With today being Thanksgiving and all, and with us in Bristol rather than a Carolina to celebrate with family, we participated in our customary tree-trimming extravaganza. We made egg salad, bought a sliced ham, and ate way too many snacks while setting up our Christmas decorations. To be honest, Sandi had succumbed, so some decorating had actually been done before today. We still need to put our lights out on the porch; we ran out of sunlight getting our eighteen hojillion ornaments on the tree. I am finishing off our stock of little weenies as I write.
Have a safe and happy holiday weekend, everyone!
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Er . . . Update Time! Woo!!
Another month has passed, and we continue to wait. Classes have begun at King, and we continue to wait. I am teaching a course with fifty students and an experimental online homework checking system, and we continue to wait. The USA Network shows hour after hour of NCIS to keep us occupied, and we continue to wait. I think you get the general tenor of our lives by now.
The high point of our past month was Sandi's birthday celebration, which we dubbed Sandipalooza. The occasion fell on a Friday this year, so she took off the whole weekend to party like it was 1999. We went to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, where we could easily have spent a very large portion of our natural lives. The simple act of wandering about the tunnels under the marine tank was great fun. From there, we hit up the local Olive Garden for the traditional Sandi birthday supper before we called it a day. The remainder of our weekend was spent alternating between relaxation and systematic removal of the nursery carpeting. Needless to say, Sandi enjoyed her birthday festivities to the core of her being.
Not all of our experiences have been pleasant, however. We received a message from Mark about the Family First Adoption Loan program Bethany had sponsored in conjunction with a Michigan bank, which was our planned method of covering our final placement fees. The fact that I used the past tense in that last sentence should give you the direction this is heading. Due to a number of defaults on these loans, the program has been discontinued. We have gathered information on several other loan and grant programs, so we still have options. However, to say that we were disappointed by this understates the matter considerably. Keep us in your prayers as we move forward.
Take care, everyone!
The high point of our past month was Sandi's birthday celebration, which we dubbed Sandipalooza. The occasion fell on a Friday this year, so she took off the whole weekend to party like it was 1999. We went to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, where we could easily have spent a very large portion of our natural lives. The simple act of wandering about the tunnels under the marine tank was great fun. From there, we hit up the local Olive Garden for the traditional Sandi birthday supper before we called it a day. The remainder of our weekend was spent alternating between relaxation and systematic removal of the nursery carpeting. Needless to say, Sandi enjoyed her birthday festivities to the core of her being.
Not all of our experiences have been pleasant, however. We received a message from Mark about the Family First Adoption Loan program Bethany had sponsored in conjunction with a Michigan bank, which was our planned method of covering our final placement fees. The fact that I used the past tense in that last sentence should give you the direction this is heading. Due to a number of defaults on these loans, the program has been discontinued. We have gathered information on several other loan and grant programs, so we still have options. However, to say that we were disappointed by this understates the matter considerably. Keep us in your prayers as we move forward.
Take care, everyone!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
No News is Good News . . . Er, Right?
I have absolutely no excuse for the lack of updates during the month of July. Well, I have one really flaky excuse: a distinct lack of stuff to report. I spent most of my days in the office talking about my dissertation -- to my resource material. Meanwhile, Sandi went to work at the bank at a somewhat higher clip, since her teller supervisor is currently on maternity leave. We started playing a new (old) video game over the weekends, but few of you would consider that noteworthy. Beyond that, there is a dearth of information for me to impart. I suppose our current fascination with NCIS might be exciting, if you happen to work for CBS or something.
As usual, we went to Knoxville on the last Tuesday of the month for a waiting families meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening, who was to have been our guest speaker previously, was a birthmother with a fascinating story. Cammy's journey to an adoption plan actually led her back to Christ. She hails from the great white north of Minnesota, which made for a wacky twist accent-wise. It was nice to hear a different birthmother perspective, as the only birthmother we have heard speak has a wildly open (and slightly frightening) relationship with her adoptive family. Cammy started working with Bethany after moving to Tennessee, despite the fact that her adoption was conducted privately rather than through a Bethany office. She is extremely personable; she playfully slapped my foot early in the meeting, for a reason neither Sandi nor I could remember later. That sounds more like life in the South . . .
Okay, now on to this month. Bethany was doing its quarterly thang in the Tri-Cities area tonight, so we had a picnic at Warriors' Path State Park in Kingsport. The park itself is really nice and surprisingly massive. As one would expect in a picnic environment, families were tasked with supplying foodstuffs, whilst the Bethany folks brought various tasty beverages and eating paraphernalia. Sandi and I opted to make a dish of banana pudding (complete with store brand vanilla wafers) and a hefty bowl of ham salad. Needless to say, plenty of other quality victuals were available; I had some excellent chicken casserole, a nice pasta salad, and these awesome 'dessert burgers' made with a peppermint patty, colored frosting, and vanilla wafers. Of course, we never gather for a Bethany function without some sort of edifying speaker, and tonight we got to talk with Wes Patten, who founded local charity Hope House. Wes has a great ministry working with crisis pregnancies in the Tri-Cities area, and some of the women have placed children for adoption with Bethany. The entire discussion was excellent, and I am jazzed to hear that they work with birthmothers past placement (or postnatal for women who choose to parent). However, the thing that sticks out most in my mind is a story that makes me glad for adopting through an agency. One of Hope House's young women had decided to place her child for private adoption. As a result of collaboration between attorneys in Tennessee, California, and Germany, this young woman went to Missouri to deliver her baby, who was placed with a German family. Umm . . . yeah.
Updates should be more frequent as this month progresses. Take care, folks!
As usual, we went to Knoxville on the last Tuesday of the month for a waiting families meeting. Our guest speaker for the evening, who was to have been our guest speaker previously, was a birthmother with a fascinating story. Cammy's journey to an adoption plan actually led her back to Christ. She hails from the great white north of Minnesota, which made for a wacky twist accent-wise. It was nice to hear a different birthmother perspective, as the only birthmother we have heard speak has a wildly open (and slightly frightening) relationship with her adoptive family. Cammy started working with Bethany after moving to Tennessee, despite the fact that her adoption was conducted privately rather than through a Bethany office. She is extremely personable; she playfully slapped my foot early in the meeting, for a reason neither Sandi nor I could remember later. That sounds more like life in the South . . .
Okay, now on to this month. Bethany was doing its quarterly thang in the Tri-Cities area tonight, so we had a picnic at Warriors' Path State Park in Kingsport. The park itself is really nice and surprisingly massive. As one would expect in a picnic environment, families were tasked with supplying foodstuffs, whilst the Bethany folks brought various tasty beverages and eating paraphernalia. Sandi and I opted to make a dish of banana pudding (complete with store brand vanilla wafers) and a hefty bowl of ham salad. Needless to say, plenty of other quality victuals were available; I had some excellent chicken casserole, a nice pasta salad, and these awesome 'dessert burgers' made with a peppermint patty, colored frosting, and vanilla wafers. Of course, we never gather for a Bethany function without some sort of edifying speaker, and tonight we got to talk with Wes Patten, who founded local charity Hope House. Wes has a great ministry working with crisis pregnancies in the Tri-Cities area, and some of the women have placed children for adoption with Bethany. The entire discussion was excellent, and I am jazzed to hear that they work with birthmothers past placement (or postnatal for women who choose to parent). However, the thing that sticks out most in my mind is a story that makes me glad for adopting through an agency. One of Hope House's young women had decided to place her child for private adoption. As a result of collaboration between attorneys in Tennessee, California, and Germany, this young woman went to Missouri to deliver her baby, who was placed with a German family. Umm . . . yeah.
Updates should be more frequent as this month progresses. Take care, folks!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
A Fresh Perspective
You may recall that my glasses broke during my trip to Nashville during the spring semester. If not, shame on you. Arranging an appointment with an optometrist during the school year, given my course schedule and typical method of reaching campus, would have been problematic. Ergo, I spent the remainder of the term using a homebrew solution straight out of the 1950's; Sandi affixed the sundered frames using an ingenious blend of toothpicks and bandages.
This had a couple of unanticipated side effects. The most obvious was a striking resemblance to one of these awesome dudes. Secondly, our solution to the broken frame problem was less solid than that of, say, soldering the frames back together. As a result, I had to readjust my glasses fairly often -- but only one ear at a time.
A couple of weeks ago, I finally went to see an optometrist, after much prodding from Sandi. I promise that I was not trying to avoid said appointment; rather, I am easily distracted by research, housework, and shiny objects on the pavement. Today was the day I went to collect my new spectacles. I immediately ascended at least two quantum levels of studliness when I first donned the new eyewear. A small tear in the space-time continuum occurred (seriously, I got the old frames during the Clinton administration), but I patched that rip before leaving their office.
Furthermore, Sandi had an appointment of her own today. She was able to use her old frames for new lenses; after all, they actually came from this millennium. Hopefully, these new glasses will help with her work at the bank, which obviously includes a great deal of staring at little font on a computer screen. She was also able to use our vision coverage to look into a pair of prescription sunglasses, thanks to the whole frame recycling thing. To make a short story long, we will both have new glasses soon.
Ashe is still little and adorable, but her claws are like twenty little phonograph needles. She has also decided that the leafy patterning on our comforter was an enemy in need of painful death. Needless to say, she usually strikes the offending fauxliage while one or both of us are under said comforter. We have suffered several little pokes as a result of these sorties, but nothing that could leave us as part of a Ted Nugent song. As a partial solution to the leaf problem, we flipped over the comforter; this has reduced the attacks somewhat.
Enjoy the weekend, all!
This had a couple of unanticipated side effects. The most obvious was a striking resemblance to one of these awesome dudes. Secondly, our solution to the broken frame problem was less solid than that of, say, soldering the frames back together. As a result, I had to readjust my glasses fairly often -- but only one ear at a time.
A couple of weeks ago, I finally went to see an optometrist, after much prodding from Sandi. I promise that I was not trying to avoid said appointment; rather, I am easily distracted by research, housework, and shiny objects on the pavement. Today was the day I went to collect my new spectacles. I immediately ascended at least two quantum levels of studliness when I first donned the new eyewear. A small tear in the space-time continuum occurred (seriously, I got the old frames during the Clinton administration), but I patched that rip before leaving their office.
Furthermore, Sandi had an appointment of her own today. She was able to use her old frames for new lenses; after all, they actually came from this millennium. Hopefully, these new glasses will help with her work at the bank, which obviously includes a great deal of staring at little font on a computer screen. She was also able to use our vision coverage to look into a pair of prescription sunglasses, thanks to the whole frame recycling thing. To make a short story long, we will both have new glasses soon.
Ashe is still little and adorable, but her claws are like twenty little phonograph needles. She has also decided that the leafy patterning on our comforter was an enemy in need of painful death. Needless to say, she usually strikes the offending fauxliage while one or both of us are under said comforter. We have suffered several little pokes as a result of these sorties, but nothing that could leave us as part of a Ted Nugent song. As a partial solution to the leaf problem, we flipped over the comforter; this has reduced the attacks somewhat.
Enjoy the weekend, all!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
