Zoo Fun and More

Hey, whoa, get that camera outta here. My nephew, D. isn't into picture taking. Plus the boy never stands still!

Whew! Got him strapped in the stroller until we got into the zoo. Looking back, I imagine standing up in the stroller seat to view the animals is not considered the safest idea... =)

The highlight of our slowly expanding zoo is the petting farm. D. fed the goat that my niece K. is always running from. Then again, that one was his height.

Feeding goats is fine and dandy but the real thrill at the zoo is looking into the quarter food slots for leftovers!

Saw the rhino for the first time in years and just had to take a picture to prove it.

After sweating it out around the farm and pseudo Africa, the fountains are the best treat ever. However, D. had more fun making me run after him around the fountains! Stinker!

Congratulations to my friend and colleague Selena and her family! I was happy to co-host her shower back in early June. Well, Sunday she gave birth to Khalil, a very handsome little boy!

Lastly, is the package in the air Travel Approvals (TA's) or Referrals????? Inquiring minds want to know!

GRRRR!

Just received a letter from my lovely agency informing me that they are still not accredited under the H@gue convention. We've been asked to write senators, Congress, the Dept. of St@te and the accreditation agency to avocate. Grrrr!

Fluffer Nutter

Here it is Sunday evening and I am not going over my lesson plans, ineffectively ironing an outfit and packing a boring lunch for school tomorrow! You know I am so loving summer vacation! But (at least tonight!) I admit that I need to break out of my vacation stupor and get something done. Yup, I've been enjoying my life of leisure to the extreme. Sadly I still have all my school stuff dumped in the garage and my list of things to do hasn't shortened one bit. I did take the plastic off of Ellie's lampshade though! woo-hoo! See, it wasn't collecting an inch of dust all this time. =) Ahh, excuses and laziness.
Also, I truly thought I was getting better at not dumping whatever I was carrying on any available horizontal surface. Looking around this afternoon, I see I'm still deceiving myself. Living by yourself is wonderful in that regard! Bernie and Gracie could not care less. Such good girls!
One of the items lying around still is the rolling duffel/duffle purchased at c0st.c0 the other day. I have another rolling duffel arriving from LL Cool Bean tomorrow. In plum.

Gonna compare both of them and take the winner to Clevel@nd later in the week. I am flying out to celebrate the 4th with Matt's family and of course, Clevel@nd rocks, right?

Got a flat Friday night. First ever and hopefully last ever. Thanks to the charming man who came to my rescue! I'll be able to tell your mom you rock, too. Haha
I am going to take my nephew to the zoo tomorrow morning. It is our first outing by ourselves and even if the animals are out of sight due to the heat, D. is going to have a ball in the water fountains! Notice: extremely cute pictures will be posted sometime after!

P.S. Less than 6 months til Christmas!

Fingerprints? Check!

Got the fingerprints taken care of today. So far so good on my free extension. I might add I'm pretty much an expert now at the actual fingerprinting process. Got that finger roll down. I didn't even get lost finding the place this time!
Wonder which will come first, my USC.IS I171H form approval or my placement letter for the next school year? =)

Oh, and what about this early matching rumor? Hmmmm.

Spinning My Wheels

I've been spending lots of time lately sorting thru some of the lists I made way back in 2006(!) and adding bits and pieces now available from other BTDT (Been There Done That) blogs. Trying to find some things I can check off my main "To Do" list so I ( and my mom!) don't go crazy between referral and travel.
Started with gifts. Realized I should get agency recommendations first. Wouldn't it be nice if they gave you a list of people you need to gift and the gift recs BEFORE the big travel meeting after your referral? Grrrr.

Went to luggage. Lisa bought hers recently. Reviewed the specs for flight in China...good grief! Only 44 lbs. allowed? Really? Suitcases weigh a ton! So maybe I need to buy an 8 lb. rolling duffle? What size? Aaak! How is that to hold all Ellie's clothes, my clothes, gifts, thermos, wash bucket and tongs and of course the recommended total pharmacy of meds and truck load of cheeri0s everyone suggests?

Realized my brother would have his bag allowance, too. Still stuck on the visual of my whole extended family sitting on the bags trying to zip both of them up. Finally concluded that my brother is only allowed to pack two pairs of clothes so I have room for gifts and cheeri0s to bring there and "goodies" to bring back. Got that Shane? Two outfits! =)
Went to baby carriers...I remember admiring the hip hammock that Tiffany used for Eliza. I looked it up. She made her own! Tiffany you are amazing! And I am going back to the drawing board! Heck, Ellie will probably be 12 years old anyways!
I think it's time for a nap.

It just plain stinks!

For the past five years I have been working at a Ti.tle 1 School. Basically this means I worked with disadvantaged students in poorly performing schools that were trying to improve scores. The kids were great, but it definitely wore me down.
The past two years I've been focused on the fact that if I worked 5 years at this school, I would qualify for (partial) loan forgiveness.
Well, for the extra hours I work because of work ethic (yeah, my fault) and the special duties, paperwork and home visits that come with this certain school, I'm not that well paid, even taking away the summer months. So loan forgiveness was going to be like a "raise" and certainly with all the necessary adoption funds that keep coming my way, partial loan forgiveness was going to rock!
Needless to say, you know where this is going. I found out today I don't qualify because I started my loans in March 1998 before the required date in October 1998. Should I have known this? Yes. Which makes this all the more maddening!!!!! Bleh!

Got Fingerprint Appointment?

Sure do! The letter came in the mail today! After momentarily freaking out on how to re-do the I600 to get the I171 (it's only my third application!) I sent in all the paperwork: original homestudy copy, update, birth cert, app, and cover letter but no money order. The cover letter requested the FREE renewal and I had my fingers and toes crossed that I wouldn't get a "We still need your fee." response. So far so good! I'll let you know after June 24th if it's still a go.

Here's the post about the inital appointment. Seems like eons ago.
And remember that second trip to renew my fingerprints? Pretty sure they got a similar picture that time. Thinkin' I'll be sporting the same set on the 24th. Snicker...

Months Since LID

I'm gonna put it out in there in the universe and say thank goodness I'll never have to find clip art numbers 34-36. =)

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Not quite the graphic complexity of last year (see below), but posted with love! You are truly the best dad, evah. =)
Don't know why the text won't show unless you click on the "view all images" box...

Summertime!

Ahhh, summer vacation is here again. This year there were several days I really didn't think we'd make it to June 13th! I'm still in limbo regarding my placement for next year. So much for hearing by the end of May, then before school ends. I just realized personnel is very similar to the CC@@!
Now I have EVERYTHING I use for therapy/teaching stacked in my garage. Ok, thrown in my garage 'cause I'm s'pose to "do some major sorting and pitching." Sounded good before I actually brought it all home. If you look at the RQ image below,

and take in the latest projections (always with a huge grain of salt) you can see another reason why I'm starting to get excited about maybe having Ellie home before the end of the year. My thoughts have come back to putting the nursery together. Cleaning out the closet, hanging pictures on the wall, making up the crib, heck putting the lampshade on the lamp that was purchased would be a good start. Finally got it out of the box. Besides, doesn't setting up her room sound so much more fun than that major sorting/pitching chore?!

BTW, have any of you registered (and probably re-registered...) at a store? What kinds of things are you hoping for? I don't think I'll register til after referral-Just curious. Seems like so many of us have bought everything (and more!) by now!

So exciting! Something to blog about!

I got the "please update your contact information" email today! I'm part of my agency's next travel group -albeit the 2/16/06 travel group! I was also asked for my GUZ number from that brown envelope which sadly, even after countless fingerprint updates, I still have not received.
But I got the update email!! Woo-hoo! I'M NEXT!!....even if it may be anytime from September 08 to February 09!

Ya know, this is both awesome and kind of scary...

June 2008 Referrals

Congratulations to those families seeing their children for the first time! Looks like calls are through January 20, 2006.

If it does go to the 22nd...

and I'm 2-16-06...
From RQ site

Only...

more days of school. Still no word on where I might be headed next school year. You know it's killing me not to know!

It's super hot and we're being bombarded by field days and beach trips and bbq/picnics and of course the daily bus ride supervisor gig. These are sweaty times, my friends, sweaty times.

I hosted a lovely (if I do say so myself!) baby shower for a colleague yesterday. Hope to have some pics up soon.
Today I got a gorgeous picture postcard of Jenny's Abby. Go on over and bask in her sweetness! =)

And, of course, we're all still waiting for the latest referrals. Come on stork!

In the Dark

STILL NOTHING!!! NOT A PEEP OF A RUMOR!!!!
I find it so disheartening to go to RQ and find only book reviews. Please don't get me wrong, it is her site and she should write about topics she wants to write about and since there is nothing adoption related to write about...
Without even a shred of info/rumor I feel like the batteries in my tiny flashlight have died. Sigh...