Babies...

Today, in the wake of my extreme disappointment, I am reminding myself how thankful I am for babies.

That's all.

Yesterday I made a big mistake at work...

Without getting into too many details, I sent out flyers on Monday that I had produced announcing a winter class at a rather large school(about 800 kids). Yesterday my boss noticed they have the wrong time on them. Oops.

After speaking to the school secretary this morning, I learned that, since this is a school that LOVES Mad Science and ALWAYS fills two classes, they already sent the flyers home on Tuesday. Oops.

While my boss was clearly upset by this, she certainly didn't take it out on me in the form of scolding or a lecture. She simply said there's always one that gets away from you, and reminded me how much the details matter in this job.

So tonight I'm thankful for a boss who can see that people make mistakes, and the easiest thing to do is get solution-minded. Fix it, and move on. Learn from the mistake so it doesn't happen again. Thanks, Linda!

Life Made Lovely

A friend on Facebook recently had her blog redesigned by a company called "Life Made Lovely Designs." It. Is. GORGEOUS! I instantly needed a new design for my site!

So today I am thankful for Molly Wenger and her artistic and computer-coding skills for making my very own blog site so beautiful! Maybe this will be the inspiration I need to write everyday again...

Martha Martha Martha...

Today, sadly, I am thankful for Martha. No need for lasts names here, you all know who I mean. And I'll be honset, I never thought it would be so thankful for this woman that I would blog about her. Learn something new everyday...

Anyway, on this day of thanks, I have learned a huge tip from Martha that I will never forget. People, do your turkey a favor: drape it in cheesecloth. It holds in the liquid you're already using to baste the darn bird, and provides you with the juiciest, moistest, most delicious turkey youve ever eaten in your life. I guarantee it. Words do not do this bird justice.

Here's hoping I can convince my dad to toss some cheesecloth on his BBQedbird...

Floyd's Coffee Shop

Today I'm thankful for Floyd's Coffee Shop. Serving perfectly brewed Stumptown coffee, and deliciously delightful Nuvrei pastries, this has become my new favorite morning ritual. While I woudld be better off eating my usual bowl of oatmeal and drinking green tea, there have been many mornings when I just cannot resist the call of Floyd's. And given that it's a block from our house and conveniently on the way to work, it's nearly impossible to say no.

This particular morning, it was on our way to the freeway so we could head to Bellingham. Who can resist the perfect coffee and pastry pairing when headin gout of town for a few days? Nt this girl! Floyd's it is! And it was amazing... As usual!

Good friends. Good food.

Today I'm thankful for our good friends Rodrigo and Beth. The boys were hired at Ziba right about at the same time, and Beth was one of the first people I met when I moved up here. The four of us all clicked instantly, sharing in good wine, delicious food, and similar family values. They've lived in Portland for a few years, so they've taken the time to show us sround and try new things with us. They've introduced us to some fantastic local wineries, and together we've eaten some of the best food Portland has to offer (and some of it was in their very own kitchen!). They are truly our inspiration for how we want to raise our own children someday, and even our dogs are in love! We always have fun when we're with them, no matter what we're doing, and we're excited to share in many more adventures with them in the future!

Carson Hawkins Barr

What a joyful day we had yesterday!  In an unanticipated move, the county moved Carson's hearing date up, and yesterday, he officially and legally became a member of our family!

Evidently, once a year, the county gathers up all the unfinished adoption business, throws a big party, and then closes as many cases as possible. So yesterday, Mandy and Ryan took Carson (and many family and friends) down to the courthouse to pet animals, sit on a pony, listen to some boring speakers, and walk out of there as a bonafide family! My mom has made a quilt to commemorate the day, and even got the judge to sign his own quilt square. There was much rejoicing and many tears shed. We are so grateful to have this whole adventure over with!

I recently went shopping for presents for Carson's first birthday (which is on Thanksgiving!) and found a teething bib that says, "Everyone is thankful for me!"  More than you will ever know, kid ��

Enough is enough...

Almost five months ago, I set out to proclaim to the world one thing for which I am thankful everyday.  Based on the number of posts seen her, i have failed miserably.  I have chastised myself many times for not making this dream a reality, but today I am making a change!  I see the difference in my attitude on days when I actually write, so I'm jumping back on the thankful train and moving full speed ahead!

I currently have an unpublished post entitled, "For days when it's hard to be thankful."  As I mentioned once before, even though I'm not writing everyday, I find myself constantly reflecting on the things that bless my life.  So today, even though my entries are few and far between, I am thankful for never having to use that list.  It's a very long list with no shortage of ideas, but so far, it's been kinda useless!  And for that, I am incredibly grateful!

Carson

In spite of my absence, I really do have many things to be thankful for.  I now find myself reflecting on such things, even if I'm not writing about it.  I suppose that really was the point of the whole exercise!

As I attempt to get back into the swing of things, I'll start with my gratitude for legal system.  A couple months ago, I wrote about an accident I was in over three years ago.  In this instance, the justice system prevailed!  After a grueling, frustrating, and just-plain-stupid three years, the woman was declared crazy (well, not literally) and ended up with nothing.  In white a different case, my family has much more to be thankful for...

My sister and her husband have been in the process of trying to adopt, as I also wrote about a few months ago.  This time around, it's been an adorable little boy named Carson who was less than three months old when he came to them.  He was instantly smothered with love by everyone in our family, and the great emotional roller coaster began again.

Almost a month ago, though, a judge terminated his birth parents' rights.  Yay!  This doesn't mean it's all over yet, but it's certainly a giant leap in the right direction!  There's a four-month waiting period before they can officially adopt him so the birth mother can appeal the decision (which she probably will, but it'll just be a waste of everyone's time), but things are definitely working in our favor this time!

Keep our family in your thoughts and prayers these days, and in the days to come, especially for any judge making an important call.  There have been many bad decisions along the way, as well as the few good ones.  Let's hope they continue to be good ones!

UPDATE: we heard from my sister a few days ago, and they've set an adoption date for November 15! I don't understand enough about adoption law to know how this is even possible, but I'm certainly not complaining! We're excited about this new development, and can't wait to see how it all turns out. We may have something to be extremely thankful for come Thanksgiving!

Happiness doesn't always make you feel happy

Man, I am REALLY bad at this blogging thing! Let's choose not to focus on my bad points...

I read this statement a while ago, and was immediately struck by its validity. I started to think about the fact that, while each day may not be happy, my life generally is. All the crap that happens day to day is usually necessary for an ultimately happy life. This weekend was a huge reminder of just that.

Noah and I are moving to a new apartment currently, and so far, it's not going so well. We moved all our stuff out of storage and into our new basement. I packed up all my craft stuff to move over to our new office/craft room/guest room/maybe a nursery eventually. (You'd think this room was HUGE based on it's sense of great purpose...). I made a plan to pack up the car with as much as I could each day and move it over, so that on actual "moving day," our job would be easy.

Two seemingly unhappy things got in the way of that...

First, Noah and I spent the entire weekend fighting. We attempted to find a practical solution for the multiple-purpose room, and couldn't agree on much. And by much, I mean nothing. Everything was too expensive, too big, too ugly, too cheap-looking, too impractical, too cumbersome, blah blah blah. I could go on forever because we basically did. Now, here it is Tuesday, and we have nothing for that room. However, by airing our dirty laundry in a very public place (by the way, worst place to be when trying to storm off in a huff = IKEA), and letting each other's opinions sink in for a couple days, we came to a fantastic compromise. We're very happy with our current solution and are excited to share our new space with good friends coming to visit in a couple weeks!

Second, I seem to have run out of time do to all this moving all of a sudden! My job at Mad Science has expressed an interest in my services for something other than mad scientisting!
It's some simple data entry stuff, creating flyers, and organizing schedules and the like. It may not be what I'm trained for, but it's certainly something I love doing. I enjoy creating things, and feeling that sense of accomplishment when I can check them off my list. Check! It could possibly get mundane, and I'm sure that eventually I'll miss being with children, but the job is constantly changing depending on the season and it might just mean I'll have to make my own children!

I'm feeling rather busy, and I certainly don't enjoy fighting with my husband. But once we get to the other side, we're able to see quite clearly why we had to follow a particular path. We may not always be happy, but we can be confident we're headed towards happiness!