another thing off the checklist

yesterday we had CPR class and learned the new 2 breaths, 30 chest pumps, 5 times. and baby heimlich is 5 beats to the back, 5 pumps to the chest. i gotta write it down quick or i forget. then we went to see Hotel for Dogs. it actually made me cry more than once. the kids are foster kids and...well...i don't want to spoil it if you're going to see it but there was a part where the kids were going to maybe be split up and that made the floodgates open.
we also got mattresses today. thank GOODNESS! i got the beds made up - now i just have to finish the yellow/orange border and the 2nd bed is done. however, i used raggedy anne and andy sheets for the boy bed and paul informed me that he doesn't think those are boy enough. i may need to get new sheets. but i'll wait until we have our placement because if we end up with all girls it doesn't matter what boy sheets i get. my first quilt is this pink one. it finally has a purpose. i made it 8 years ago and have never really used it other than when guests come. it's been another weekend of errands.
in other news. i have an interview tuesday morning at the company i used to work for. unfortunately, it's an hour, about an hour and a half during commuting time, away from where we live. and because we are really needing to stay in our county for the foster situation...it just may not work. i'm still going to go and see if they even make me an offer. maybe i'm over qualified for what they are looking for. i don't know. i'd LOVE to get back into a big corporation but i'm just not sure that's going to be a realistic option. *sigh* pray for me if you think about it.

pictures of stuff

i've been working my tail off finishing up the quilt. i just need to finish the diagonal orange and yellow border and then i can put the binding on. probably one full day (sunday maybe) and i'll be done. woohoo! then on to other projects.
here's what i'm doing on the purple border. my friend shweta brought me back that fabric from india. i LOVE it on this quilt.

and then there's the fireplace screen i got today for $0.

and lastly...dun-dun-duuuuuunnnnn!!! baby seats. in MY house. it is making things feel more real. and that much more scary.

provisions

ok so get this. i'm not a super spiritual person. i try to be. i'm just not. doesn't mean i'm going to a lesser heaven-so don't go there-i know some of you just did. anyhow-i've really been holding out on buying a bunch of the stuff we need for foster certification because i just want to see how god will provide. so today i emailed our homestudy worker to see if we need the fireplace screen that is required. in my mind they are talking about wood fireplaces that could have sparks fly out. but appearantly, since our gas fireplace gets hot on the metal parts it means us too. so i look on craigslist and wah-lah...there's a fireplace screen FREE, 10 days ago. bummer! but i think-what they hey-it's still listed. so today on my lunch hour i drove over there and sure-n-dug there it was sitting right up next to the fence on the curb! 10 DAYS! so i snagged it. and tonight after work paul is going down to lakewood to buy a baby seat and a toddler seat for the car for a whopping $35. i checked the recall list and they aren't on there. so yippy, right? and then there's a woman trying to get rid of her highchair...$10!!!! what the?! so paul's gonna go get that after the car seats. so for a whopping $45 today we are gonna get 2 car seats, a highchair and a fireplace screen. now we just need those twin mattresses. i know they're coming from somewhere i just KNOW it.
**Edited to say the lady with the highchair didn't come through but the car seats are awesome. We made out like bandits on that front. It's weird to have baby seats in our house.**

put up your DUKES!

Well, I kinda pulled a cheri-doozy tonight. i might not have a job by morning. ha!
here's how it started:
Brad: what kind of shoes are those?
Cheri': simple. these were the first shoes i bought when i got off the trail because my feet were too big for all my other shoes.
Jarrod: is that documented somewhere?
Cheri': ask any thru-hiker.
Jarrod: i'm more of a true hiker than you. i could out-hike you up any hill sweetheart. (and then he blew me a kiss.)
Cheri': no-THRU-hiker, not TRUE hiker.
Jarrod: (going on and on about what a great hiker he is completely oblivious to the fact that i'm telling him THRU not TRUE.)
Brad: "thru-hiker?"
Cheri': ya, it means you hiked the whole trail at once. and if you've hiked all 3 long trails you're a triple crowner.
Jarrod: (still going on and on about what a great hiker he is-and no one is listening.)
So i went back to my office and Jarrod calmed down enough to hear my words. and he said "OH! I misunderstood you. do you forgive me?" "Sure, you're forgiven."
It's overwith right? Nooooo! Jarrod keeps going on and on with Brad. I can't REALLY make out what he's saying and I don't really have any interest. But then I hear him say "So this is how you forgive people huh? You don't look at them?"
I said "no! I've already forgiven you. I forgave you 2 or 3 times already!"
Jarrod: OOOOOh! Ok. So this is how it's gonna be.
Cheri': No! you're forgiven!!
Jarrod: (still going with the forgiven crap.)
Cheri': That's it. I gotta go.
I got up, forwarded my phone. Grabbed my purse. Went to forward Diane's phone because at this point it's 5:27 and I get off at 5:30. I have YET to leave a minute before 5:30 until today.
So he goes: Are you really leaving.
Me: YES! I've forgiven you. And you know what, you don't always know what you're talking about. I've spent more time in the woods than any guy you know. And I deserve respect for what I know about hiking. I don't demand respect for alot of things, but this is something I know about. I don't tell you how to take pictures and I respect that you know things about sales and all kinds of stuff, but this is something I know about.
Jarrod: listen sweetheart....
Cheri': AND THAT'S ANOTHER THING...DON'T CALL ME SWEETHEART WHEN WE'RE FIGHTING! (I'd prefer he never do it, but frankly it doesn't bother me so I pick my battles.)
Then he went on to blow smoke about how he does know about hiking and going on and on and i finally go "this fight is stupid!"
And I left. And called M'Lady (his mom) and left her a voicemail: "I just got into a fight with Jarrod. I just wanted you to know because I'm sure he'll be calling you. And it wasn't even about work...it was about HIKING! and then he was mad at me for not forgiving him right! So I left. It's 5:30 now...feel free to call me tonight if you need to. Otherwise, I'll talk to you in the morning."
Then he calls and leaves me a long long message about how he respects me and blabidy blahbidy blah! and call him back so he can sleep tonight because he feels so bad. So I called him back and said "it's Cheri'. Look...I'm not mad at you..but you have to know, it's OK to not know everything. Sometimes you need to shut your mouth and open your ears and listen. You might LEARN something!" and he apologized all over himself-which is what I was looking for. And I said "you guys think I'm so passive...I'm not passive-I just don't CARE about alot of stuff. You can talk me under the table about quilting or running or any of my other hobbies but I KNOW hiking. I know thru-hiking, I know long-distance hiking. I'm one of 5% of the people that finish-and that's just the people who TRY. Only .0035% of the adults in the US has done what I've done. I KNOW hiking."
So...I've said my peace, stuck up for myself and things JUST might change around there.

Ok God...I GET it.

most of you know we've moved around a LOT in our marriage. at first i loved it. until i had to move away from florida the weekend my mom and dad moved in to florida. that was a hard move. i had so been looking forward to living close to her again and then paul got the job out here in boulder. but. as i look back at all of the moves and see the direction we are heading in now, full steam ahead-I might add, it all seems to make sense. like a puzzle coming together one peice at a time. although, i have to admit...i feel like i'm putting the puzzle together from the middle and stretching outward, although i have no idea where the edges are and how big this puzzle will end up. here's the pieces i've been putting together this last week.
when we first got married we moved to colorado because, hey, who doesn't love colorado? and paul was finishing his bachelor's degree out here. that led him to the job in DC. i thought-how fun! i've got friends there and we'll get to see erica peters (now mongelli) again! so we moved to DC. she invited us to go to a small group her friends had just started. even though we had yet to go to the church they were affiliated with we went to the small group. there we met a group of great friends and that time in our lives, although it was just tuesday nights, will never be replaced. that small group is where we met jason and liz. we then moved to florida because who doesn't like florida? ok-so i've found out some people have strong opinions of florida, i am not one of them...i loved everything about it. the heat. the humidity. the sand stuck to everything. we bought the cutest house on the planet and fixed it up. it even had a spare bedroom that we could put kids in! ok...yes...so the original plan was to fill the house with kids. we pictured the backyard with a swing set. the location was perfect distance to my mom's house. the cost of living was good enough that we could afford for me to stay home once paul got a job. and then paul never found steady work. so his search broadened to, basically anywhere. landing us back in colorado of all places. this time the job was in boulder. we looked at a map and said "we can either live in westminster, where we've been, or longmont where we've never been....let's try longmont." turns out jason and liz moved here too. they live approximately 2 miles away. in late summer we tried our first (and turns out only) attempt at IUI. not to be too graphic but when i was laying at the fertility clinic with my feet up in stirrups and the nurse, was attempting to impregnate me i said "gosh, i never thought my first child would be concieved by a woman named carolyn." it was at that moment i realized it just wasn't natural for me to get pregnant while paul was at work. needless to say, after our first failed IUI and the thought of going through more fertility treatments we started down the path of adoption, even had our application filled out for a chinese baby. we became more open about our fertility woes and Jason & Liz told us about the wait no more conference down in the springs. we decided to go because we were going to be down there that day anyway and this would give us a chance to find some good heart stirring questions to ask ourselves to make sure we were ready for adoption. what we didn't know was that it was about adopting colorado foster kids. as we walked through the booths and picked up information from the various departments and agencies that were there we found the table for our county. deciding that would be MUCH easier than commuting 2 hours to the springs we picked up a flyer and started thinking. and reading and thinking and reading and thinking. one meeting led to another and that brought us to where we are.
had we not moved to DC we wouldn't have met Jason & Liz.
had we not moved to Florida we wouldn't have been open to moving anywhere for a job.
had we not moved to Longmont we wouldn't have gotten back in touch with Jason and Liz.
had we not gotten back in touch with Jason & Liz we wouldn't have heard about the wait no more.
had we not been through 2 years of fertility woes we wouldn't be open to adoption.
and that leads us to where we are. twice in the last week people have asked me how i'm ever going to deal with sending the kids back home, if and when that happens. all i can say is, it's a god thing. three months ago this was the farthest thing from my radar. and now i'm not anxious, or worried, or scared about the day that we would have to send the kids back home. i would not have this attitude on my own.

WE GOT BUNK BEDS!

I always wanted them when I was growing up. But now I've got them! And I'm only 33!!
Paul said we could sleep in them tonight but then he called dibs on top so I said nevermind. Aren't they great?! Now we just need mattresses.

the proof

here are some pictures. not sure how this one got so crooked...when we were in florida i bought this desk and dresser at salvation army. i loved the knobs. and then fixed it up for our future kids. i had no idea i'd need them for ready made kids so quickly.

and here's the other direction....never mind the mess in the hallway, we're getting there.

and another view of the crib. it's still intimidating me.
and the new family room, it seriously feels like we added a whole new floor.

the new office...

and finally, i know it looks like a mess to you, but to me it looks like a sanctuary for creativity. i'm so excited to have a real spot for sewing and crafty stuff.

actually-here's a better photo...now you can see the way paul hung the snowboards and ladder up on the wall.

and here's how we hung the camping gear and i put a curtain up to hide all of the boxes. looks homey huh?

busted a move

we did gooooood today. i got up and took tatum on a 3 mile run so she would get her extra energy out. ha! she was running circles around me on our way back home. she hadn't been running since june and i must say she's a MUCH better runner now that she's a doggie and not a puppy.
then we came down to the basement and moved stuff around. we are so freaking organized it rocks.
now we have a christmas corner, keepsakes stack, backpacking pile, a new garage (in the basement) and home decor corner. I have my very own sewing table which ROCKS because I've never had one. And we put up curtains to hide the boxes we are keeping under the stairs since we move so often. we have a new family room with the futon, rug and 2nd tv-that even plugs into cable-SCORE big time. and a new office corner. I'll have to get pictures up to explain but with out before pictures it's hard to appreciate. but it feels good. makes the bedroom feel more real. we pulled the kid desk and dresser up there, and now the crib is up against the wall instead of free floating amongst the office furniture. tonight we had dinner down here on the futon watching the tv in our new family room. it seriously feels like we added a whole new floor to the house. loving it!

this is weird

soooo.....this has been starring at me all week.we bought it on sunday. i know, i haven't said anything. it's just too weird and feels too fast. it converts to a toddler bed, day bed or a full size headboard. we got it off of craigslist for a steal. now we just need the mattress and bedding. and then we need to get bunk beds or something just in case we end up with 2 older kids. we were setting it up and i had a panic this-is-not-fair-moment again. i realized normally this is done with a big round pregnant belly. and normally you have all kinds of gifts from baby showers. and normally you're not sure where to put all the family when they fly in to help you take care of the new baby. except that our new baby might be 7 years old and might go home in a couple weeks or 9 months. it's ok. i can get over it. but it does still make me sad from time to time that we won't get to do it "the normal way". and i'll never get a baby shower.
but we had a good talk the other night about how paul feels about it all. i want to make sure i'm not dragging him into anything. he said he always knew my heart for orphans and knew that it was always in my long term plans. we just didn't think it would be now.

7 years!!

we had a great time at our anniversary fondue date night. it was delicious and we left stuffed like little piggies. my hair didn't look so great because that morning i took tatum on her morning walk. waved goodbye to paul as he drove past in the truck. meandered slowly back to the townhouse. turned the knob and realized paul had locked the door when he left. so i ran to buster's house and josie answered in her robe. thank god for josie. however, we JUST gave our key that dave & josie had back to jamie so she could show the townhouse. soooooo...paul had to drive back. i did enjoy a nice cup of coffee with josie. however, i got back in the house at 7:30. which is normally the time that i'm coming downstairs to eat breakfast. luckily i had washed my hair the afternoon before so i could make it with out washing it....i would have loved to have washed it BUT i've made it longer than that before. anyhow i did make it to work with a minute to spare even. then i took tatum for her vaccinations over lunch. she did TERRIFIC! then i came home after work, honked the horn and paul came out and we went down to dinner. ahhhh. we were trying to get back by 8:00 so paul could watch the new episode of heros but at 8:20 when we were picking out which chocolate fondue would complete our feast, we realized we weren't gonna make it. now THAT is love that i'm willing to rush our anniversry dinner for his favorite show, dontchyathink?
when we came home we found that tatum had gotten a little stir crazy and helped herself to the tissue in the downstairs trash can. little booger. what IS it about tissue? do you think she knows she did a no-no?