two hours

Yesterday I woke up in a funk.  I'm not sure why, but when I heard Ryan crying when he woke up, I just rolled over and went back to sleep knowing that Tony would get him.  Actually, Tony gets Ryan up every morning, the only difference this morning is I honestly dreaded getting up and intended to stay in bed as long as I could.  I drifted back to sleep and woke back up around 8am.  Still too early for a Friday after Thanksgiving, I closed my eyes again.  Finally around 9am, Tony came into my room to see if I was alive.

I grudgingly got up out of bed.  I'm not sure why I was in a mood, but I was.  I'm not even sure how to describe the mood.  Cranky, sour, depressed - none of those hit the nail.  Maybe a bit of each though.

After sitting on the sofa for about a half hour with Ryan playing with the iPad on my lap, Tony could clearly see I was out of sorts.  He had the wisdom not to ask too many questions and instead announced that he was going to take Ryan out somewhere and I would have a couple of hours to myself.

Now, I love Ryan and Tony dearly and with every part of my heart.  But when that door closed behind them, I did a happy dance and got busy.  I changed clothes and worked out, cleaned the house, showered and ran a couple of errands I'd been trying to take care of for 3 days.

So on this day after Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for a wise husband who quickly discerned that his tired wife needed a break. 

It's all I needed.  Two hours of absolute freedom to do whatever I wanted or needed to do.

adoption update

I haven't written about our adoption process in quite a while.  We are trying to adopt a special needs child from China.  For anyone who has gone through the adoption process, the paperwork required is not for the faint of heart.  And a fainting heart (not literally) is exactly why I haven't written about where we are in the process.

For those who may or may not remember Ryan's response when I asked him whether he wanted a little brother or a little sister, I will remind you of his quick reply:  a dog!

Well, since we already have an amazing dog, we are adopting to get a little sibling for Ryan.

We started the paperwork maze around March and it's been a bit of a roller coaster ride for us with a few bumps in the road.  We have until March of next year to get our paperwork into China before ONE of us is too old to adopt.  We actually have TWO races against the clock.  One race against a March 2013 birthday and one against the six-month expiration date on certain documents.

And in September, we were running behind and I started to panic that we were going to lose that race.  Our doctor reports were going to expire on October 12th and I still needed to get them notarized, certified by the Utah State and authenticated by the US State Department and the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC.  Yes, it is a process.

I'll spare you the details, but I had a harrowing experience at the doctors office with the paperwork.  In the end, a miracle happened, and we got the signatures within the dates.  After a near heart attack, I hand delivered them to the Utah State Capitol for certification with a prepaid Next Day Air envelope and then went out of town.

I calculated that the Next Day Air envelope would be on my desk by the time I returned home.  But, you guessed it, it was not.  After a flurry of calls, we determined that the envelope had left the Utah State Capitol, picked up by UPS and then there was no sign.  The tracking number was never scanned and it was lost.

Had the customer service agent asked me about contents and replacement value, I would have said "15 irreplaceable documents and a failed adoption" which is exactly what it would have been.  I don't think we could have reproduced the documents before next March.

But after several prayers, a phone call or two by my patient husband, and one miracle, the documents were not only discovered, but delivered the next morning.

I overnighted them to our courier in Washington DC who hand delivered them to the US State Department, picked them up the next day, hand delivered them to the Chinese Embassy, picked up the following day and then overnighted them back to us.

Yes, it was expensive.  But it was also worth it.

And now?  Even as I type I am copying those 17 documents (they multiplied) and tomorrow, they are being shipped off to our agency in Colorado.

Do you want to know the truth? 

I'm not sure what is scarier.  The possibility of losing the documents or the nearness of a potential child match.

p.s.  No, those old pictures of Ryan don't have anything to do with the story, but it was too long to not break it up with a few cute pictures of Ryan.

preparedness baby step #1

I've been thinking this past week of my plan of attack to begin preparing my family for the upcoming winter (which I think might be a big one) or for any unforeseen natural or unnatural disasters.

I thought I would show you the fabulous generator I found that is my next purchase or how I plan to re-organize all our emergency items.

But I thought I would start from the beginning of this journey. 

Baby Step 1:  Shelf Reliance Food Storage

Earlier in the year, Tony and I started to get involved with a company called Shelf Reliance.  They have these fabulous shelving units that I hope to fit in my pantry someday. 

It is this shelving unit that started the company but they expanded to carry food for emergency preparedness storage.  We signed up as independent consultants, Tony did a few farmers market booths, but we haven't done much else.

Although several people we know have had huge success as independent consultants, we're just hoping to share the good news, inform people of their great products and make enough to offset our own purchases (which, if you're interested, is a great way to build your own emergency supplies and storage).

So, here is our Shelf Reliance website:

www.athrivinghome.shelfreliance.com

I'll probably write more about it, but they have a great program called the "Q" where you can set up a monthly program and buy any amount of product - we buy $50 per month.

The thing that is great about Shelf Reliance is most of the food is freeze dried.  You can use your food storage in daily meals (they are the only veggies I can get Ryan to eat!) and rotate it by using it instead of throwing it away when it expires.

Our favorites are the sliced peaches, corn, brownies (yum!) and the chicken.





Next, I'll tell you about the generator!  Don't worry, I'll still blog about Ryan - I know he's the main attraction of this blog!!

Natalie

unprepared

I woke up early Saturday morning and glanced at my clock.  It was completely dark.  I looked over at Tony's side of the bed and saw his clock was blank as well.  Outside my window I could see a LOT of snow.  And then I heard it. That unmistakable sound of silence that occurs when the electricity is off.  I love that silence.  There is something about it that stirs both a bit of excitement and anxiety in that sound.

We had a big storm here in Salt Lake City over the weekend...REALLY big.  And I'm not exaggerating one bit.  I don't know what the official report is on how many inches fell, but look at just take the above picture's word for it.  It was a LOT.

I'm not sure exactly what time the electricity went out Friday night, but according to a neighbor's facebook status, it was about 2am.  It went on after 11am so based on my FB friend's info, we were out of power over 9 hours!

There is nothing like a power outtage that makes you take stock of how prepared you are for an emergency.  And take stock is what I did.  Here is what I determined: We are not prepared.

* We have 2 emergency flashlights that are always plugged into outlets.  One was not replaced correctly and so was completely dead.  The other could not be found (I will go ahead and blame Ryan for this one - probably the only blame he will receive).

* We have 1 battery powered lantern that functioned fabulously.  Other smaller flashlights and batteries were accounted for and worked, but it was soon light enough that we didn't have to rely on them.

* We have enough water to last us 2 weeks and food to last us few months.  The recommended amount is 1 gallon of water per person per day.  Luckily, we didn't need to tap into our water. We've recently started buying our food storage and we are buying about $50 of food storage per month.

* We do not have a power generator or candles.  These are now on my shopping list.  Our home is very well insulated and the temperature dropped to 68 degrees, but it was pretty tolerable.

I had made plans in my head that if the power stayed off (I tend to be a bit dramatic in these situations), we would take Ryan to either my sister's house or even Auntie Patty's (his sitter) so he could sleep in a warm home and Tony and I would rough it out.  OR, we would use some of my Marriott points and check into the nearby Residence Inn. 

As I mentioned before, the power came back on around 11am, Tony and Abby walked through the snow to pick up our Explorer with its newly installed snow tires and the adventure was over.

Being from California, the snowstorm kinda freaked me out a bit.  I knew we would be ok, but I found myself not knowing about some of the basics.  A classic example of how unaware I am of Utah snow storms, I asked Tony how long our food in our freezer would last and what we should do.  He just looked at me and said, Honey, the food will last a lot longer than the power will be out, but if it comes to that, we can just put it on our back porch.

So it is Sunday afternoon and I have determined to become more prepared.  I am going to become more prepared for power outages, for winter storms, for other possible disasters and calamaties.  Okay, maybe I'm getting a bit dramatic again.  But consider the northeast and the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. 

Regardless of relaties or dramatics, stay tuned for more emergency preparedness information coming your way.

a short history on Ryan's hair

Ryan was born with a great head of hair.  While neither Tony nor I spend a lot of time or money on our own hair, we spend a relatively larger amount of time discussing Ryan's.

His hair grew fast and before we knew it, he had fairly long locks.  I loved it, but people began asking me about my little girl despite the blue and brown clothing that he frequently wore.  I would trim his bangs from time to time so he could see, but I resisted Tony's increasing suggestions that we get his hair cut.

And then there was the day this happened. I was not happy. Not happy at all.

 And Tony admitted that trying to cut Ryan's hair himself might not have been the best decision he's ever made.  Even Ryan appeared to be unhappy with it.

But eventually, even that bad haircut grew out and he once again had his beautiful locks.  Personally, I think he was happier with his beautiful long locks.  Even if people were once again asking about our little girl.

But a few weeks ago, it got to be too much.  He couldn't see through his long bangs and ever since the stitches in the ear incident in July, he won't let me cut his nails, cut his hair or any other types of personal grooming that mothers like to do.

So we visited Cookie Cutters, the genius hair cutting women who can magically cut a crying, writhing child's hair.  When we arrived, Ryan was wary.  The airplane chair did nothing to disguise the torture that was about to begin.  And true to recent form, he screamed as if his life depended on it.

I told the hair technician that I wanted a classic little boy's cut - not too short.  She pulled out the shears and told me she didn't think cutting with scissors was going to be safe with all Ryan's writhing and screaming and all.  I agreed.

And then she started to buzz.  And buzz.  And buzz.  Before long, I could see it was too late to question the length and we were going to be completely buzzed.  Apparently I don't understand the term "classic boy's cut".  But I love it.  I didn't think I would, but I love it.