Fun Updates

Hi!

It's been a while since I posted. I was away all last week at a friend's house, which was great. Any time I go somewhere, even if it's winter, it still feels like a vacation. I always love a vacation! Even if it takes a week for me to recover...

1) We're officially waiting, which I guess we knew. I'm kind of mad about it, because despite the fact that we mailed everything to the agency on December 14, they didn't get everything filed and processed until January 11. So we kind of lost a month that I thought that we were waiting but we apparently were not. Grr. More frustration. I hope the rest goes smoothly. I'm not changing my ticker though, because I've been waiting that long, whether or not the agency thinks we have.

2) My SIL invited me to go to a black tie gala with her in 2 weeks. It's been a while since I've been to a black tie gala, so that should be fun. And by "it's been a while," I mean that it's been like 6 or 7 years. In case anyone thinks that I'm so fancy that I'm at a black tie gala often, well, they'd be wrong.

3) This is not new news. In fact, anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time will know this. I HATE WINTER!!!! I hate it with a passion. We have about 3-4 feet of snow on the ground in Connecticut and it's supposed to snow more this weekend. And I seriously can't take it anymore. I wish I lived in a place like San Diego where it's always sunny and 75. I counted, and it's about 10 weeks until April. That's not too long. I guess I can push through 10 more weeks.

4) I am going to make cupcakes today. I found this recipe online for banana cupcakes. Then another one for nutella frosting. I love nutella and I have some very dark brown bananas. I think it'll be a good combination.

5) Happy ICLW. I'm going to post more this week, just in case some people come by!

Better

Thanks for bearing with my blah feeling last week. I was able to push through it by making some Oreo cheesecake cupcakes. They were awesome. Well, the recipe made 30 cheesecake cupcakes, so they continue to be awesome. I've eaten about 3, Mister's had maybe another 3, and he took a dozen and a half to work with him. I think we have 6 or 7 left...

As I said in this post, I am a little obsessed with Christmas. I love it. I love Christmas music, I love cooking and baking for Christmas, I love decorating. I just love Christmas. I pretty much always have.

A few years ago, we decided in my family not to exchange gifts with each other anymore. My brothers are all really bad at buying gifts, and it clearly was highly stressful for them. We never liked the things that we bought for each other, so we just decided not to buy gifts for each other. When we told Mister's family that we were not buying gifts in my family, they decided that it sounded like a good idea too, and in both families, we stopped doing a gift exchange.

That may have happened in 2007, I don't remember. So for a few years, we had these weird Christmases without gifts. Last year, we were with my family for Christmas, and we all went on a trip together. That was fun.

This year, we're spending Christmas with Mister's family. I told Mister that I want gifts again. I don't care if his parents get us anything, or his sister. Or if we get them anything. But we've at least decided that we should buy something for each other.

Mister asked me what I want, and I told him that I want one of those 3 stone past, present, future necklaces. Not necessarily that one that I linked to, but one like it. But when I wear it, the stones won't represent the past, present and future. Each stone will stand for a person in our family. One stone for me, one for Mister, and one for baby. I wonder if I'll get one.

If I do, then I can wear it and it will be a visible symbol of our waiting. Not that anyone would look at a 3 stone diamond necklace and assume that each stone stands for a member of my family. Not that I would tell anyone. Also, not that I forget for a second of any day that I'm waiting for that 3rd person to join our family.

Then the other thing I thought of that would be cool is if I get one of those necklaces and wear it while we wait for baby, someday I could give the necklace to baby when he or she is an adult. Obviously, this scenario works better if baby is a girl. But maybe a guy would like a piece of jewelry. Especially if the story behind the piece of jewelry is, "I wore it when we were waiting for you. I wore it as a reminder to myself that you were always in my heart. And I wore it knowing that I would give it to you someday."

Does anyone else have any good holiday wishes this year?

Aaargh!!

OK, let me tell you about my day so far.

First, I had to do some laundry or I couldn't get dressed. So I started off doing laundry so that I could get dressed and get moving on my day.

Once I got dressed, I had to go to the grocery store, which I usually do on Mondays, so it's kind of my regular schedule. We always go to this grocery store that is kind of far away. It's way better, and a lot of stuff is cheaper. It's kind of like a farm stand type of grocery store, but they pretty much have most things we need. But it's about 20 minutes away and we definitely pass about 5 perfectly reasonable grocery stores on the way. Now this is like the Disneyworld of grocery stores - they have characters in costumes, animatronic robots who sing songs for the kids, and whatnot. It's kind of weird. So dummy here forgot that it's not a school day. Now they have all these special kid activities going on, a hayride, a pumpkin carver, a magician, and a band. It took a while to get through the store, but I highly prefer this store, so I don't really complain that it takes long. I know it takes long, and that's part of the deal with going to the better store, I get that.

So I got home from the grocery store and I had to bake. Mister had asked me last week if I would bake something today for his class tomorrow. He's leading his small group discussion and thought it would be friendlier if his leadership offered baked goods. I agreed, so I said I'd make some brownies today.

But first, I've been really craving chocolate chip cookies, so I thought that I'd bake both. It's not really hard to bake either, so certainly I could bake both. Fine, great, an afternoon of baking. I put the dog outside on her tie-out so she can enjoy the nice weather and I started to collect my supplies. Then, uh-oh.... I won't have enough chocolate chips to make a batch of cookies. (This is when I'm really grateful that on the way to the good store we pass about 5 other stores...) So I realize I have to get to the store so I can finish my cookies.

Off I go! This is how it goes to this store. It's pretty close, 4 or 5 minutes to drive there. But then parking fiasco! 10 minutes to park! Then another 10 minutes to shop and pay! Then walk back to the car and another 10 minutes to get out of the parking lot! Then another 4 or 5 minutes to drive home. I needed chocolate chips and it takes 45 minutes. :( Oh well, I say. That's again, part of the deal. If you live in a big town, that's how these things go.

I got home, get my chocolate chips and go inside. I made the cookies, and I'm all set to start making brownies. Then, uh-oh... I don't have enough cocoa to make the brownies. So I realize I have to get to the store so I can finish my brownies....

Actually, this was where I told Mister that I was about to lose my mind and would not be making a 3rd trip to the store on the same day. He agreed and offered to pick some cocoa up for me on his way home if I would make the brownies tonight after dinner. So now I'm relaxing before I start dinner. What a crazy day!

Mister and I had a super fun weekend, which will require a separate post because it was just that awesome. I think I'll make that post tomorrow.