New Passion

So... I have been such a slacker on posting lately, not because I couldn't think of anything to write about, but because I have been so knee deep in my new interest that I haven't felt like I have had an abundance of time. (Also, this week is Open House in school, so I have been spending major time prepping for that).

Anyways, both Blake and I have gotten very interested and excited about hockey, primarily the Anaheim Ducks team.

It all started with a great opportunity that my grade level at my school got this year to learn how to play hockey . This is a program sponsored by the Ducks. They do all of the training, and provide all the gear for the kids to use, and it is just really a great chance for the kids to learn a new sport that they might never have had a chance to try without the Ducks intervention.

After their first skating lessons, they also gave our school enough free tickets for every child in my grade level to go with a parent to a Ducks game at the Honda Center, as well as enough for the teachers to go with a guest too. At first, Blake really didn't feel like going, but I eventually convinced him to try for a night. So, on January 22nd, we went to the Ducks game against Colorado Avalanche. It was amazing! It helped that it was an exciting game, where it got tied, but then the Ducks pulled out the win, but it wasn't just that, it was the game itself.

I had no idea that hockey was such an interesting sport to watch! Of course, at this first game, I had no clue about anything except for the simple basic idea of the game- score goals. Even as we watched, we started looking online to find out more information about plays and rules that we weren't sure about.

By the time the game ended, we knew that we wanted to go to another one before the season ended. We bought tickets for just one more game... but until the time of that game arrived, we found ourselves reading about the players, about their chance at the playoffs, where the other teams were in reference to our team, etc. It wasn't just Blake interested, it was me too, and when the Ducks were playing, we were checking regularly to see what the score was, including during dinners out.

I started regretting that we were only going to one game, and mentioned it to Blake on numerous occasions... so for Valentine's Day, he bought us tickets to two more games! At this point, we have gone to two of the three games that we bought tickets for above, but somehow, the more we watch hockey, the more we want to watch hockey. So, after our Friday game last week, we started watching hockey games on TV, because it was no longer enough to just find out the scores. Not only that, we aren't content with just Ducks games anymore, but now we are watching the games that affect the Ducks chance at playoffs too... or just hockey games just to watch another game. Also, even though we still had one game left... we decided to get ticket to go to another one. :-D



The primary draw of hockey as compared to other sports is the constant action. At least for me, you can't take your eyes off a hockey game for a second, because it could be a game changing moment. Also, it is so easy to believe that there is a chance to win until the bitter end because it only takes seconds to score, and if your team can at least tie, they can win it in over time. Friday's game had a beautiful moment like this, where a Ducks' player got the goal that got them the win instead of overtime in the last minute of the game. So exciting!

I think we appreciate the challenge of the game too, and the fact that unlike some other sports, the end scores are typically very low, with higher than six points being rare.

Also, I might be crazy, but I think there is a certain grace and beauty to the game, and especially to the best moves. The skating, the puck handling, and that amazing moment that in spite of how many opposing team members try to block it, the puck still goes in, all come together in a way that I truly think is aesthetically appealing.

In any case, it has been fun to have a new passion, a new thing to be excited about and spend time doing with Blake. My big regret right now is that we came into this so late in the season, and the last games are in April, and then it is the playoffs and we will have to wait until October again to start following games again.

Go Ducks!

Hope

I want to be the kind of person that always has hope, and that hope is a positive thing ... but lately I have been frustrated with hope.

Our call could be any day now, as I have mentioned before. It was relatively easy getting through the first six months of the wait after being warned by our coordinator that it would be at least 6 months before we could realistically expect a call. But now, it has been enough time, and we seem to be toward the top of the list. So with all that, we really have sane reasons to believe that one of these days, we come home, and there may be a special message for us.

Most days, I think about it once or twice during the day, "today we could have that message," and then get home, see no message, and move on with life.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a message, but checked the missed calls first and saw it was terminex, so didn't worry about it. Today, I came home, saw a message, and saw a missed call from an unknown number... and allowed myself to hope. It turned out to be just a dumb real estate thing. So part of me is frustrated by hope, because it seems like it would be easier to go back to when I didn't think it could happen.

At the same time... even if we are on the slow end of the average length... it is more likely than not to happen this year. Which means that at some point... we will get that phone call... which means I will keep getting my hopes up about messages.

p.s. if you want to call me... don't leave a message! :-D Shoot me an e-mail instead and keep me from getting my hopes up without a good reason.

Cupcakes!

We spent the day today with Blake's brother and his girlfriend. We had lunch, went bowling (and I did NOT lose every game :-D ) and then we came back to our place and I made cupcake's with my brother in law's girlfriend. We had so much fun!

Here are our beautiful creations:
(cookies and cream cupcakes with devil's food cake frosting topped with more oreo crumbs and fun decorations that we made)

A Bibliophile's Book Acquisition Plan or How someone who loves books gets her hands on so many of them

The definition of a bibliophile is

"a person who loves or collects books, especially as examples of fine or unusual printing, binding, or the like."

While I don't particularly care about the printing or binding of books, I think it is safe to say that I collect books based off of my three bookcases in the house, books stored in the garage, under beds, in shelves etc. There are a lot of books in our house... and those are just a fraction of what I have read!

In 2009, I read 49 books, in 2010 I read 50, in 2011 I read 63, and at this point, less than a month into the new year, I have read 5. This works out to about a book a week (though in truth it is more like a couple weeks for some books and a day or two for others, and more in summer, less during the school year etc.) All this to say, many books pass through my hands every year, and I felt like talking about how that usually occurs.

Price- Free!
If at all possible, I prefer to get my books for free. This sounds strange if I was actually collecting books, but I still feel like I collect books in that I have read them and their stories are in my mind. I don't need to have the books always in my possession... I am happy to lend out those I own, and borrow books to read, even if I plan to re-read it later.

-The Library. This is generally my primary method of getting books to read. It is free, I read fast enough to return them, and the hold system even eliminates the concern of will my book be there or not. If I am looking for a book to read, I will typically check my main library's catalog first.

- Family/ friends. My mom is the primary person in this category, though I have some friends that fall into this group too. After they are finished reading a book, if they think I will like it, they will pass it on to me to read. Still great, still free, not typically my choice, but in general good reads as the people passing me books know my tastes.

-Free Kindle books. There are not many of these, but I have downloaded and read some of the Kindle books that are free. Truth is, most of my other categories end up topping these because the books I most want to read are never the free Kindle books.

-Goodreads win. I have only successfully won twice, and tried many times, but Goodreads has book give aways all the time. I try to go on there every so often and apply for the ones that I like. It is not random drawings, but winning is based on what other books you have, if you post reviews etc. I am currently working on trying to review more of my books so that I have a better chance of winning in the future. However, like the problems with the previous two categories in free, there is very limited choice in this area too, since there are only certain books on give-aways and only a chance of winning.

Gifts- This is obviously simple, I get books that I asked for, which is fabulous and great, and typically are books off my wishlist talked about below.

Price- pay

- Kindle- If there is a book I want to read, like a book from one of my favorite authors or a sequel in a series I am reading, I will first check the library. If they don't have it, or have a huge list of holds on it, my next stop is looking to see if it is available for the Kindle. I find that the Kindle book prices are usually less than the hardback copies.

- Gift cards- Although I wish it weren't so, there are books that the library doesn't have or has tons of holds on, AND are not available in the Kindle format. These tend to be the more obscure books, like my transracial adoption books or Ghana related books that I am reading lately. As I find out about these, they go on my amazon wish list (because amazon tends to have every book I ever think of wanting). Then, when I periodically get gift cards for a book store, or sometimes just stores that sell books (like Target) I buy up these books off my list, and slowly pick away at it, and keep my list updated as my interests change and there are books I no longer desire.

- Ebay- If there is a book that somehow doesn't apply to any of the following, and I want it before I get more giftcards, then my last resort is ebay. Even with shipping, I find that it is cheaper than paying full price anywhere.

So, I get books in a variety of ways, and am able to keep my desire for exciting books to read filled with limited cost to me.

Stories from my phone's pictures

I was so excited to find a photobucket app for the phone! I have a poor habit of bringing my camera with me, and I always have my phone with me, so many times I end up taking a picture with my phone as my main camera.

Getting it to the computer used to involved several steps, like hooking up the phone to my computer, getting the pictures off, saving them to my computer and then uploading them to photobucket so that I could post them on here. But now... I go to my photobucket app, tell it to upload pictures, and they are all there for me wherever I go!

This post is dedicated to the pictures I uploaded and the stories or parts of stories with it.


We have had a few windy days lately, and on one of my runs I saw this in my path! Crazy!


Over Christmas break, we decided to change our dining room from tan to red! It will become our Africa room, as we hope to acquire more African artwork, some while we are there, some here, but keep that culture in the house.


These were our three top picks.


Here is our work in progress. Guess I haven't taken an after picture yet lol! Soon.

One of the things I asked for Christmas was a ravioli press, and my sweet mother in law got me one! We have made ravioli twice now- one with a spinach ricotta filling, and one with a butternut squash one. They were both so good! However, they are a lot of work, and Blake has decreed that I can only have us have ravioli once a month. (which is extra fair, since he does the majority...basically all... of the work to make them). Here are the steps of our spinach ravioli, our first attempt at ravioli ever!




We started with kneading it by hand after it was mixed, and Blake quickly realized how tiring that is, so switched to using our mixer for it.



We (and by we I mean Blake) rolled it very thin, into two different sections

Then we put our spinach ricotta filling on it.

Topped it with the second sheet and cut it out with my new ravioli press.

Let them harden for about 10 minutes and then cooked them in boiling water (we did 5, but decided it needed 7 next time).

Topped it with a butter sage sauce.


Also on my phone... my perfect egg cooker! If you ever make hard boiled eggs, this is the best invention ever! Put it in with the eggs, heat the water to boiling, and then watch this turn from red to a dark purple. When it is purple, the eggs are done, and ready to be in an ice bath. They have been great every time.


I decided during Christmas break that I really wanted a picture frame filled with family and friends so it could hang somewhere in the house. I love the one that I found! It has a couple of panes of glass in it, so it provides depth. Only problem is, after I composed the lovely frame filled with pictures of people I care about... we haven't found the right place to hang it yet. So right now it is sitting in a chair downstairs, waiting for a spot.


A couple of weeks ago, we went hiking at a nearby park where my 10k will be just to get the lay of the land. Blake was thrilled to get his picture taken, as you can see.

That is a fairly accurate update as far as we go for now. Otherwise, our status is unchanged.

New Year Habits, Hopes and Goals

I don't like the term "resolutions," especially paired with New Years. I think there is just too much of a connotation of you plan to do better, but New Year's Resolutions so often fail, that telling someone that you have made one almost negates it as a legitimate goal.

So I have made some resolutions, because although I don't like the term, I do like the idea of using the New year as a fresh start on commitments that you have always intended to do anyways, but I am going to call them New Year habits that I want to establish.

Don't judge me too harshly for these habits I am trying to establish... because I know for most of you, they are already so second nature that it is almost sad they are the habits I want to establish.

One of them is simply to "try" every morning. In previous years there were days that I would put forth effort in my outfit and hair and makeup... but they were usually special days, like conferences or a date night etc. The rest of the days, I wasn't a slob... but I really wasn't trying- no makeup, hair in ponytail kind of days. Blake has mentioned to me on occasion, that he likes it when I try (not that he doesn't like me when I don't try) and I think that it was somewhat sad that I would try more on a regular basis for the parents of my students than I would for my husband who sees me every day. So... since the year started, I have taken the bit of extra time in the morning to make sure that my outfit, hair and makeup look good before I leave and I hope to establish and keep this practice as a habit.

The other habit that I have done well on off and on is picking up the house each night before bed and getting it back to a base level good. Our house is never really messy, but when there is a sweatshirt out here, shoes out there, it starts to pile up and look cluttered. But if I put all those little things away every night, then the house will stay clean. Also, my half of kitchen chores is the drying and putting away, but there would be some nights that I would leave some things in the dish drainer, and then those would pile up into a huge chore. So instead, I am making sure that all dishes are as put away as possible. My New Year habit is to make this a nightly thing, not just a sometimes thing.

My 2012 hope is that we have our child home sometime this year.

My 2012 goal is to continue training, and do my 10k, and half marathon this year, and prepare for next year's marathon.

A look back at 2011

As we are down to less than 24 hours left in 2011, I felt it was the right time to look back at what this year has brought.

The biggest life event that happened in 2011 is our starting our adoption process and getting to the point where we are really just waiting for the phone call. The multiple documents, homestudy, applications, etc. all were started just this year. In some ways it is crazy to think that we started all this just a year ago, yet in other ways it is crazy that we have been in the process for so long and yet are still probably another 9 months to a year getting a child home.

Another main thing of this year was our trip to Ireland. I flew to another country and walked around there by myself while Blake worked! Probably so small of an achievement for many others, but I generally don't like being alone, so it was huge for me, and continues to encourage me as I try other new things on my own. March was when I first heard about the possibility of this trip. April was full of changing plans as we expected to go, then it was postponed, and then we eventually went in May.

This June we painted our house a whole new color and we also celebrated 5 years of marriage together. On the point of marriage, 2011 was the first full year that we didn't try top get pregnant at all. We started trying in 2009, and still tried through half of 2010. But 2011 was completely adoption focused and it felt great! All that stress is gone, and I feel like Blake and I really connected over this year, and lately I have been enjoying the time with him so much that I am truly fine with the waiting for a phone call, knowing that I will miss this precious close time.

The next significant post of 2011 was that in September I started running, and I am really happy with how that is going. I feel better, I think I look better, and it was so fun a few days ago when I was able to keep up with Blake a lot more on the bike ride. I am proud that I have kept it up this long, and look forward to achieving my goals in this area.

The other significant thing that happened in 2011 but has been purposely withheld from my blog up till now is that my brother got married this year. In January, so it has actually been almost a year now. The main reason that I have kept it off the blog is that there are a lot of issues that have come with this marriage for my family. If you think of it, pray for harmony for my family. I didn't want the year to end without mentioning it once, because I want to look back on this blog someday and remember 2011, and my brother's marriage and the results of it was a big part of the year.

Another less than positive key portion of 2011 was that Blake had a number of health issues this year. Fortunately the majority of them are either gone or under control, but for a number of months, he was pretty miserable, and the doctor didn't know how to help. We even had a trip to the emergency room for him this year. Hopefully we remember to stay thankful that none of his issues turned out to be something chronic and unfixable.

Over the course of the year, I also read 63 books! Even some of those show where my interest was this year, as a large portion were on Ireland, Ghana or adoption.

I also wrote 59 (including this one) blog posts this year. I am especially excited with this number considering that I wasn't focused on my CSA box and stopped posting pictures of the boxes after we had been getting it for a year. I felt like these posts were fairly well spaced out too, so that I could look back today and get a good picture of the majority of the things happening this year.

Before I finished this post, I decided to look back at my 2010 post. Here is a few things of note:

- In February I had written-
"I didn't write anything this month... and honestly don't remember much of it either... lol guess that goes with my 2011 goal of being better at blogging/status updates online." and I know I did better at that. No month had no posts, and the least in a month was 2. My facebook year in status also shows I did well in this area:


- Vacations were another thing of note. This year, besides our trip to Ireland, we didn't have a vacation at all (and arguably Ireland was not a vacation since Blake had to work the whole time). In 2010 we had gone with Blake's family to Morro Bay and my family to Colorado. Also, I traveled to visit my friend in Oregon too. I think my brother's marriage was probably a big factor in this difference. But it's okay anyways since Blake needed to save his vacation time for our possible Ghana trip. The fact that it is now falling in 2012+ means that he has more paid days off for it... yay!

- Green eating really started for us in 2010 with both the CSA box and bison... two things that we are continuing with still today, to the point that they are just accepted as part of our choices of food.

My main thought as I look back is that 2011 was a good year, and it really passed quickly. I look forward to seeing what 2012 brings!