No Ordinary Family

Today, Jim tried to wear me out but we had fun. We went on a jeep tour this morning. It was fun. We got to see several cactus species and got a pretty good (bumpy) trail ride. Here are a couple pictures. Then we went to lunch at the Sonora Brewery. We had another good meal and some good beer. We are still full from lunch. So far Phoenix is treating us pretty good in the food department. Then we hiked up a rock called “hole in the rock.” It really was not much of a hike but I am so out of shape you would have thought it was Mt. Everest by the way I was huffing and puffing. We got some pretty cool pictures though. But by the time we got back to Bethany’s we were both so exhausted we both ended up taking a nap. I am now feeling better after a much after needed diet Pepsi. Tomorrow we are not sure what we are going to do, but I am sure we will find something fun.

This is going to be short because I was too tired to blog last night and I need to start getting ready for the day. We got to Phoenix after a early but good flight I think Jim enjoyed it more than me, but it was his Birthday, although he did not raise his hand when they asked on the plane if it was anyone’s birthday :0) We found Bethany’s place with relative ease only one missed exit. We went out to lunch and then took off exploring the area, which was much easier to navigate than Portland. We found a cool monument park which had a couple memorials to the Arizona (the ship that is at the bottom of Pearl Harbor) Here is a picture of Jim next to the Anchor. Then we get to the good part of the night, dinner with Kim, John, Nick, Colton and KyLee. We had a great time. I was so nervous, I was really excited to meet them but I have never gone out to dinner with someone I met on the internet before, completely new experience for us. We had a great time. The food was good. Jim was really worri...

Well, we made it to Portland, just a little snow but none on the roads. We are now finally back in our hotel room and hoping to get to bed soon since we have an early morning but what usually happens when I know I should be sleeping is I lay wide awake for hours, so we will see. We got to Portland about 3 and checked into the hotel and then headed out into Portland to look for a book store and eventually dinner. We drove in circles around Portland, Jim insists we weren’t lost, we were exploring, but we saw the same building 2 or 3 times. Finally, I suggested we go to the shopping center that I found when I was here for a class last year. My directions took us back into Washington and then back into Oregon in order to find the shopping center. But we did find it. I was looking for China Ghosts , I thought it might be a good read on the plane, but they did not have it. Instead I got Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah , it looks good. We then thought we would get some dinner a...

Ok I think we are about ready to go. I am exhausted. I am so glad that we do not have to leave early tomorrow. I am the declaring myself the queen of over packing. I can’t even imagine how we are going to pack for China. We are only going to be gone for a week and I have enough stuff for a year (well maybe not but close) I think we have a near complete pharmacy packed with Jim’s cold meds and mine. I am sure that I won’t wear half the clothes I packed and I will feel I need something that I decided I could live without. I walked outside today to go to work and Jim mentioned how cold it looked and I said it smelled like snow but I never thought it would really snow, maybe rain at the most. It snowed here most of the day it was a bit surreal. I don’t think I have seen it snow here this late in the season since I was a kid. It did not stick here but I wish I had a picture of it coming down. We took the snow tires off weeks ago, so I hope that the pass is ok but we have all day so we shoul...

Can you believe that it has been this long? This time last year all we were waiting on was our 171H and my birthday. I thought the tough part was over, was I ever wrong. The paperchase was easy compared to waiting forever . If the predictions that were made when we started this journey we would be about half way though but, as it stands, we are very far away, but we are still closer than we were eleven months ago, so I guess that is something. Jim and I went out for Chinese food tonight, we are on a quest to find a good Chinese restaurant our area. Well, we did not find it tonight. We knew we were in for it when we saw the menu and hardly recognised the dishes. So we ordered what we thought would be safe BBQ pork for a appetizer, Jim got the sesame chicken and I got the cashew chicken vegetable . Well it started out OK with the pork although a little dry, but then they brought the main meals Jim's should have been called fried chicken and gravy with a dusting of sesame...

I am so in need of this break. I can’t wait to go. I have had enough of work and I need warmer weather. It was really nice for a couple of weeks and then the first day of spring it was 28 degrees outside when I left for work. I am ready for spring!! I love the winter but it needs to go for about 9 months. We have so much to do before we go it is going to be a busy week. Jim’s parents came to dinner tonight and we showed them how to feed and water the fish. Yes, I said water the fish, with the lights that we have, the water evaporates rather quickly and needs to be replaced every couple of days or it will get too salty for the fish. They will also check on the cat, so he does not get too lonely. Tomorrow, we need to do a lot, some shopping, some packing and somehow fit in an Easter visit because it sounds like Emma is having uncle Jim withdrawals. It will be nice to see everyone; I am sure baby David has grown so much since we saw him last in February. Emma was apparently worried about ...

I am here sort of. I stayed home from work today because of my shoulder/back. I have been trying to stay off the computer because it irritates my shoulder a bit. I ended up going to the doctor yesterday and she said what I already knew, that I strained a muscle but she did give me some muscle relaxants that have helped a lot although they make me a little loopy at times. We have a big organic run at work tomorrow so I have to be there. That was one reason I decided to stay home and rest up today. Yesterday, I tried working and the more I used my right hand the worse it got and ibuprofen was not helping like it usually does. The doctor wrote me a prescription for PT or Massage therapy (I felt like an idiot because I had to walk in and ask how a script for a service worked but that is another story.) So she told me to find out which my insurance covered because massage works better but it is not always covered. I called them this morning and of course the massage is not covered. ...

Yesterday, we kind of took it easy. We went shopping, I got a pair of capri’s to wear on our trip and Jim got some shorts and a shirt. We also got a few groceries. We went to the pet store to get me a small net so I can attempt to transfer my guppies to their new “condo” when Jim found a Coral Beauty Angel that he absolutely needed, Ok I told him to go ahead. It was on sale for only $14.99 and that is a steal for angel fish. He needed another fish in his tank and this time we knew what he was getting and knew it would be OK for his tank, unlike the anthea disaster. She is doing fine (since the other fish are decidedly boys I told Jim that she had to be a girl). The name is still up in the air but she sure is a beauty and she seems to like all the algae that is growing on the rocks. There is a pic at Jim’s blog . We then went home and I did some sewing and we watched a couple movies. We invited Jim’s parents over for dinner; we were going to make corned beef and cabbage in honor of St. ...

You learn something new every day and today I learned that today is pi day. March 14 is pi day because π is represented as 3.14. I don’t know enough about pi day so I thought I would direct you to a π day website for your surfing pleasure. Now I am a nerd so I will celebrate π day with a cran-apple martini but these people have videos and T-shirts and songs and much more. Ok you got me, I would love to have a π T-shirt. I think this is pretty cool too . And I am too much of a nerd not to like this . Today on π day I also received my March Secret Pal gift. I got this amazing Leapfrog refrigerator magnet toy. It is so much fun I am going to put it on the frig now it sings a little song when you match the animal halves. It is even great if you mismatch the animals you can make a pig/ duck or a horse /cow and it sings you a silly little song. She also sent me another great flap book by Karen Katz. Little Miss is going to love these. She also sent some really cute bows for Little Miss’s ha...

I almost forgot the Tobster turned 6 today. I can't beleive he is that old. I found some puppy pics the other day and when I get them scanned I will post the super cuteness but for now here is the old man enjoying his Birthday Cheese. Jim thought it would be better than chocolate cake that we will be enjoying. (I hope he has secretly bought us gas masks to sleep with?)

Hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a good weekend. Saturday we went shopping and Jim and I both got some clothes to wear on our trip. We are getting very excited and I think we will be able to fill our days with lots of fun activities. It was so nice on Saturday we were going to take the dogs to the park but after our shopping trip we were both tired so we thought it would be better on Sunday. So I made some sandwiches and packed some snacks and drinks. The nice weather we had on Saturday decided to leave us and it was a little chilly at the park. So we ate our lunch in the truck and then took the dogs for a walk they did not care if it was a little cold. We scared some ducks and got some exercise it was a good trip. We then went to my Grandma's house. My Aunt Karen was in town and she called to say I needed to come by and pick something up that her daughter bought for me, in the truck. I was intrigued, which daughter and what did she find for me? Well, it was Katie and it i...

Well I thought I better post so that it will push those ridiculous pictures of Jim down. Referrals came out this week. The CCAA is up to January 4 th 2006. They finally made it to 2006, Yea!! They are still 476 days from our LID so we have a long ways to go. It is really hard for me to believe that they are referring LIDs that are more than 2 years old. When we started it was only 18 months apart and now it is more like 26 months and just keeps getting longer. It doesn't bother me as much anymore, I think I have just gotten used to small batches since I have never seen large batches. We will come home with our baby one of these days. Everything has been pretty quiet around the house this week, work has been busy but that is a good thing. I am not even sure of our plans for weekend. We need to decide if we need to make any reservations for our trip to Arizona (other than the plane and the car, I already have those). Jim is suppose to make our tour of the airplane place on Wednesday...

Ok, don’t freak, my favorite TV family is just fine but I want to punish my DVR. Jon & Kate plus Eight is my favorite TV show. I record it every week and I can’t live without it (yep, I may die). So where, you say, is the tragedy? Apparently this week's episode is called “Gosselins Go Skiing” so my DVR, being the stupid machine that it is, did not record it. Lucky for everyone, TLC replays the episode at 9pm. So now I sit here and wait for 9 to come along so I can watch my show. In the mean time let me entertain you with what Jim does when I let him get a hold of my computer. He found the camera and the special effects buttons. He only had it for a few minutes while I emailed Robin at Red Thread Stitches (her address was on his computer) to see if she could change my order since my secret pal got me the same exact dress I ordered. They were different sizes but I thought if she had not started I would see if I could get something a little different. She was going to start my dre...

We bought our house 8 years ago, it was new and had no window coverings. We did not have much extra money then so we bought cheap plastic mini-blinds. Slowly we have replaced the window coverings in each room but it has taken this long to finally get new blinds for the living room. I know it probably should have been the first room to replace but I could not make up my mind. We actually replaced the cheap blinds with more cheap blinds a couple times because I was not sure what I wanted. I finally just did it, we got wood blinds for the front room. I even ordered them so the tilters and the lift cords are on the same side toward the front door so they are easier to get to. I ordered them about a week ago and today the Fed Ex man showed up with my new blinds!! Jim went to work right away and put them up and they are absolutely fabulous. Later we went to Costco and found a new coverlet set for our bed. It looks great. I have been looking at quilts like this for a while and since they had...