"Keep Austin Weird"

No lie, that's a slogan that you will see in the city of Austin, TX. I'm not sure how weird it is, but it is big. And far. We had to drive there on the weekend of May 31st to attend a seminar for our adoption.

I hate travel, people. HATE it. But I survived. We played "20 Questions" and sang "Fried Ham" to keep ourselves entertained. I tried to get a video of Dustin singing "Fried Ham" in his best Billy Mays impression (that's the Oxyclean guy by the way, whom we mercilessly mock at each commercial), but he would not let me. It was hilarious though. You'll just have to take my word for it (or call Dustin and beg him until he does it for you... yeah, that might work). I married a silly man. I laugh at with him constantly. At least our children will be entertained.

When we arrived at our hotel, we requested a room on the ground floor. They only had one. We went to it and it smelled, in Dustin's words, "musty". It my words, it smelled like urine. I know what musty smells like and I know what urine smells like. This was not musty. It was a very nice hotel, however, so the "musty" smell really surprised me. So back to the front desk we went and very kindly requested a different room, since this one was "musty". They apologized profusely and said it would not be a problem. A woman that I can only assume is a manager was standing there and said that for our inconvenience they were going to upgrade us to a suite (ground level, of course).

People. This hotel room was HUGE (and odor-free). I've never stayed in such a nice room. The counters were like granite or something. There was a wet bar. An entirely separate room with a couch, recliner, table, and second television. The service was top-notch. They even had a good (according to Dustin) hot breakfast (for free), free popcorn and hot dogs every day, and free drinks each evening (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic).

The seminar was good. It was very long, but very informative. We learned a lot. At the end, we got to hear from a birth mom who placed her son for adoption about 18 years ago. She was a kind soul, and by the time she finished sharing her story, I wanted so badly to run up and give her a hug. I shook her hand and expressed my gratitude instead. Also on that panel was a couple who adopted through this agency twice. To hear the husband talk about the day they brought their son home... well, you could tell that he was not a man of many words, but the words he had to say were touching.

In our group, there were two couples that had previously adopted (one with our agency and the other through a different one). The one that adopted through this agency has a daughter that is 19 months old. It was encouraging to me to see them back for their second. That makes me believe that they were happy with their first experience with this agency. I did not think I would be comfortable working with an agency. When we first started exploring adoption, I talked to many many agencies and most of them left me with a very bad taste in my mouth. Not that I rely on feelings to guide me, but the way I would feel after the conversations with them were not good. I felt sort of like a big dollar sign instead of a woman in pain. I can only assume that their birth moms might feel the same way. *shudders*

This agency though is not like that. I've never had a conversation with anyone in either the local office or the Austin office that made me feel like they were anything but caring. They seem to genuinely care about us and about the women facing the difficult decisions regarding their babies. The fact that people (both birth moms and adopting couples) return to them time and time again speaks volumes to me. I hope that the remainder of our adoption experience with them is good. Who knows, if it is, maybe we'll be back for a second someday. Though I'd really really like to adopt a beautiful Korean child if we ever do this again. *grin*

We watched a few videos. One was on transracial families, which I found particularly interesting and informative, though it left me feeling the need to pursue that topic more deeply if we become one. Another was on shaken baby syndrome and how to avoid it. This video is awful. There should be a law that every person to ever come into contact with a child has to watch it.

They covered things such as discipline and punishment, and one person sitting next to me was what I would call mouthing off. Mumbling all sorts of trash. I wanted to throw a bottle of water at her, but I was nice. Apparently she thought that hitting a child is a laughing matter. I think she made most of the people in the room uncomfortable (including her husband). She made me flat out angry.

I'm slowly starting to think about buying baby things. It's a very scary thing to me. It still feels like a huge leap of faith to actually buy something... wrong, almost. But we really need to. I ordered some bottles last night (glass bottles... BPA free, thankyouverymuch) and we're going to look at changing tables very soon. I'm watching craigslist for stuff, though I haven't seen anything I want.

Now we're just waiting to schedule our homestudy interviews, which will probably happen over the next month or so. Oh, and they might do an FBI check on us. That's a little intimidating. Not that we have anything to worry about, but the FBI? Maybe they'll get CTU and Jack Bauer on our trail too.

I wonder if Jack Bauer would read my blog. That could be a problem.

Won't you be my neighbor?

See, because if you were, you would get free food.

Caterpillars I guess don't like cucumbers, because we have cucumbers growing out our ears (Not literally, of course. That would be weird.) and none of them are hole-y. In the past week, I have picked about seven. We love cucumbers, but we just cannot eat that many. So I gave a couple away to our neighbors/friends/Realtors. We *heart* our neighbors/friends/Realtors. They have about a billion adorable children and are the nicest people we've ever met.

We like them so much, in fact, that they got not only free freshly picked cucumbers, but also an Amish Friendship Bread starter.

Dustin's co-worker gave us one a couple weeks ago. We followed the directions, baked it up, and realized it's yummy stuff. Now, you must know that I've just tasted it. A small taste. Most of the eating has been done by Dustin. See, I don't really care to put things in my mouth that involve spoiled milk. This recipe has milk, flour, sugar, yeast and I don't know what else sitting in a baggie on your counter for many many days. It smells like wine when it's finally ready to be baked. It tastes nothing like wine though (which, to be honest, I found mildly disappointing). You have to mash it daily, and add some more flour and milk and stuff and burp it every once in a while. Then on day 10, you add more stuff, put a cup of the mixture into four baggies (to give away as "starters") and cook what's left of the fermented mess (with some more added ingredients) into two loaves of very sweet and very moist bread.

It looks like this:



Yummm. Now, don't you wish you lived in Texas?

Got Worms?

We do.

Not in us (that we know of), and not our dogs, thank goodness (though we've been down that road before)... but in the garden.

Not good, friendly worms either. These worms are hungry and they like my veggies. I've been finding little holes in a few of my green beans.

Bad worm. No cookie!

Today I found a large hole in a pepper. So I picked it (just one - not a peck - and I did not pickle it) and cracked it open. This is what I found.



Anyone know what it is (other than in biiiig trouble)?

I'm now officially a pincushion

Tuesday I had my first ever acupuncture treatment. My doctor is a certified acupuncturist and has been wanting to practice on me since last year. I finally agreed. It was definitely an interesting experience. I'm not a stranger to so-called "energy therapies". I've had some success with acupressure and acupuncture is sort of the same thing. Western medicine claims they don't know why it works, they just know it does. Traditional Chinese Medicine claims it is all about "energy" and meridian points and what not. Anyway you slice it though, sticking a ton of tiny needles in your body... by choice... is just strange.

My visit went a little something like this...

Dr: When I saw I had an acupuncture appointment today, I was excited. When I saw it was you, I was very surprised.

Me: So was I.

Dr: I have to have you sign this form that states that you understand we don't know why acupuncture works, you can bleed and/or bruise and get lightheaded and faint. You may feel really tired afterwards and feel achy where the needles were inserted.

Me: So long as you don't make me puke, we can still be friends.

Dr: I use very thin needles, sterile and single use, and they do not tear muscle or nerve tissue like an injection needle does.

Me: Wait. Muscle? What do you mean they don't tear muscle? You're going to poke my muscles??

Dr: Well, yes. They go into your muscles and nerves.

Me: *blink, blink*

Dr: Ok, small pinch. *pokes first needle in my foot*

Me: Ouch.

Dr: Another small pinch *inserts second needle in opposite foot*

Me: Small p... what the frick? Small pinch? Are you mad, woman?!

Dr: Don't move. If you move, it will hurt. *inserts more needles*

Me: Frick!!! Oh.My.God. FRICK!!

Dr: I told you not to move!

Me: Yeah, it's sort of an automatic reaction to jerk when you're, you know, poked with something sharp.

Dr: Try to relax.

Me: Relax??? With 10 needles in me? How the heck?!

Dr: You'll see.

Me: Yeah... u-huh...

Mom: *laughing in the corner*

Dr: Ok, two more to go... well, actually three more. I'm going to put one in your head.

Me: In my head? This was not part of our original deal!

Dr: Yes. That one is to make you relax.

Me: Ooooh no.

Dr: No?

Me: My HEAD?? What if I jerk my neck and it goes into my brain?

Dr: It's my favorite point. During a stressful day in the hospital, I walk around with a needle sticking out of the top of my head. It really works.

Me: *stunned silence at this crazy woman assaulting me with needles*

Dr: *pokes the top of my head*

Me: Oh. Well, I hardly felt that.

Dr: See? Now relax and I'll be back in 10 minutes. Don't move.

Me: Relax. Right.

A couple minutes pass... mom and I joke about photographing the 13 needles now protruding from my body. I'm nervous as heck because I can't move. Then all of a sudden... aaaaaah. It's like total calm. If my eyes would have stayed closed and someone wasn't banging on something in another room, I could have fallen asleep.

People. I was totally relaxed. At the dr's office. I've NEVER been even remotely relaxed at a doctor's office before. It was wild. Then several minutes later I did indeed get light-headed so we stopped the treatment a couple minutes early.

It was by far one of the most bizarre things ever. I did not expect the light-headedness. Even though she warned me and I read the paper or whatever, I figured it would happen at the beginning, not at the end. Apparently it can relax you enough to drop your blood pressure some. According to her and what I read online, it usually only happens during a person's first treatment. I go back in two weeks.

I had at least 13 needles in me. They were in my feet, on both sides of my knees, my arms, wrists and the top of my head. Not all the needles hurt. Most of them just felt like a "little pinch". A few though really did hurt, and it was interesting to note that all but one of the ones that hurt bad were on my right side. The one that hurt on my left side was probably only because I jerked my finger. Can you say OUCH?! Don't jerk your finger, people. It's not good.

Painful. Bizarre. But to be totally honest, I think I want a needle permanently poked into the top of my head.

A Photo Shoot

A couple weeks ago we decided to take some photos. We had to turn some in with our official adoption application paperwork stuff, and they had to be current, so we needed to take some.

The lighting was horrible that day and it was super hot, so they didn't turn out very good, but I thought I'd share anyway. There are more, but here are a few for now.

Don't you love that you can see Dustin holding the camera remote in the first one? *giggle*

Have you heard of Moby Wrap?

Well, Moby Wrap has heard of the 2 Belles! They asked us to donate some jewelry for their Summer Gift Basket Giveaway and we were more than happy to oblige.

If you've not heard of them, they are a wonderful company that employs women in Thailand (with good wages & benefits) to make these fabulous and versatile baby carriers. Being friends with lots of AP mommies and other "baby wearers", I've known of Moby Wraps for quite a while and was thrilled when they approached us. I expect to try a Moby Wrap out myself when we get our little baby.

Anyway, check them out and enter to win one of three gift baskets, including some 2 Belles pieces! Have fun and good luck. *grin*

Texans Can't Spell...

... or maybe we're just lazy?

SKERRRD!

We have big stuff coming up very very soon in regards to our adoption, and my nerves are not treating me so nicely. I'm skerrd, I'm skerrd, I'm SKERRD. If you think of us, please pray. :) I'll write more about it later.

We turned in just about all of our paperwork last night along with our first fee. The local director person came to meet us and pick it all up at the last minute. We've talked extensively over the phone and she's very nice so it was good to finally meet in person. Dustin and I had to write autobiographies following an outline that was given to us. I figured I'd get, oh, a page and a half maybe... but oooh no. It ended up being almost four full pages. Dustin's was that long too. I guess we had a lot to say. :) This is a good thing, since the more info we give them up front, the shorter our homestudy interviews will have to be. Now that our paperwork has been turned in, our homestudy should be scheduled pretty soon. It will take probably around 4 hrs total for us, but the paperwork itself will probably take a few weeks to be completed and approved and all. Once we're approved, we get to write a BIG, FAT CHECK (I don't even want to think about that number right now) and wait for a birth family to pick us.

I did not know this until last night, but they wait until the birth mother is just about due before they show her the adoptive families that are potential matches for her. So apparently, when we get a call saying we're picked, if all goes smoothly from there, we will be parents within a few weeks. Weeks! It makes sense that they do it this way since until she has signed off on the paperwork (which, in Texas, cannot happen until at least 48 hrs after birth), the birth mom can change her mind at anytime. She is counseled throughout her pregnancy (or at least for as long as she has been in contact with the agency) so by the time they show the profiles, they are usually pretty certain they are making the right choice, but of course, some do change their minds. We will get a child that is more than likely a week old or less... probably 3-4 days old.

Very soon, we will have to start looking for a pediatrician and also start buying things for the nursery because you know, we only have a crib (sans mattress). I guess we will have to go with a gender neutral thing mostly since we will not have much time for things once we get that call.

There is so much stuff, and it's all so overwhelming, but right now I just need to make it through Monday. One day at a time... one day at a time. I'm very very very much looking forward to Monday. If I survive until then, it's all good.

Bad dog... no cookie!

You'll never guess what I found this afternoon as I opened the door to let the dogs in from a potty break.

Trixie (formerly "good dog" now renamed "crazy dog" - still laughing over that photo by the way. I have NO IDEA how I caught that look... it was a one in a million shot!) with her cute, little white furry head buried in my row of green bean plants. Chick-dog was chowing down, people. I'm not sure I could have been more angry if the dog was chewing on an $800 pair of shoes (no, I do not own any $800 shoes in case you were wondering). My green beans. MY green beans! Ding dang dog eating my green beans that we worked so hard to grow.

*Insert smoke-blowing-out-the-ears smiley face here*

After I yelled loud enough to disturb the entire southern Texas area, I refrained from throwing her out into the street with a "will work for food - oh wait, I'll just steal it" sign taped to her chest. She ran inside with a green bean plant stem hanging from her mouth. Now, I used to think she just took after me with her love for veggies. Seriously, these dogs love raw carrots and cooked taters and broccoli as much as they love meat. But for real yo, as veggie-loving as I am, I've never eaten a green bean stem.

I can hear her now, digging in her blanket in the living room, snorting. But I know she's really laughing. She had the best lunch ever and totally got away with it.

I should have known it was a bad idea to feed them a few fresh, raw green beans the other day as a treat. Ding dang dog-mom.

Them are some good eats, right there

I'm talking about chocolate, of course. Brownies, to be more specific. Who doesn't love a good brownie? Rich, moist, chocolaty. If they're made well, they've got to be one of the yummiest desserts.

I have been on the quest to find the perfect brownie recipe for quite some time. I wanted something that used cocoa instead of chocolate squares because I love cocoa, it's easy to keep on hand, and I always have it. It seems like a lot of recipes out there call for the squares. That's just not my "thang".

I tried a ton of recipes. Either the brownies came out too gooey, too dry, too flour-y or too something else that wasn't quite what I was after.

Then I picked up a little recipe booklet of my mom's (you know the kind - the ones that just BEG you to buy them while you're trying to put your groceries on the checkout thingamabop) and found it. The recipe. The brownie recipe to end all brownie recipes.

It's easy. It's rich. It's yummy. My husband says they're the best brownies we've ever made, and I tend to agree with him. They actually taste better than the box mix, which to me is difficult to achieve because box mix brownies are actually good (as opposed to most other boxed food - Amy's organic macaroni and cheese notwithstanding, which just so happened to be my dinner last night, thank you!).

The recipe is originally designed to make a dry mix (equivalent to 4 pans of brownies) you make up and keep in your pantry, ready to add to your wet ingredients whenever you are ready. I have not done that yet. I've just been quartering the recipe and making one batch at a time. They're good enough though, that I'm thinking that making the mix would not be such a bad idea. I'll give you the whole recipe, then give it to you quartered so you don't have to do the math.

Here it is, the recipe for The Best Brownies EvAR. Try them. They're good.

4 cups all purpose flour (or whole wheat pastry flour if you're a freak like me)
1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder (NOT baking soda, Crystal... NOT BAKING SODA)
1 tablespoon salt
5 cups sugar
2 cups cocoa (we love the Special Dark cocoa for these - yumm!)
2 cups shortening (or organic virgin coconut oil if you're afraid of shortening like me - plus it just tastes gooood)

Mix all but the shortening/coconut oil in a large bowl (or your Kitchenaid mixer if you're cool like me). Cut in the shortening with two knives or pastry blender or a fork or whatever other kitchen device you have that you think might work here (Or if you're using coconut oil, the Kitchenaid does a fine job all by itself - I have no clue if it will work with shortening as well because, well, it's scary bad for you and I just don't buy it!) until mixture is crumbly. You can store this for up to six weeks in an airtight container... it should make 12 cups of mix.

To make brownies:

3 cups brownie mix
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I like double strength - because, well, it's just good stuff)
2 cups (12 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional, unless you're in my house where they're not allowed in brownies... *big, loud sigh*)
1/4 cup water

Mix all ingredients and pour (though it's sort of thick to "pour" - shmear would be a better word here) into a greased 9 inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. (I think my square pan is 8 inches, so I have to cook it a little longer than it says unless I want brownie soup. I'm sure that appeals to some people, but not to this salmonella-fearing-germ-freak.) Cool and, well, eat. Or don't cool and eat warm. Or package them up and send them to me (so long as they don't have shortening, you know). The choice is yours, really. I'll leave it up to you since I'm a nice person. But to be honest, I think your best bet is to just send them to me.

If you want to make just one pan at a time, mix the following amounts of the "mix" ingredients and then add in the rest of the stuff from the above list.

1 cup flour
1 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup shortening (coconut oil!!!)

I'd show you a photo of these luscious (sorry, Bethany, but they are) goods, but alas, they are so good that they are so gone. Maybe I'll catch one next time. I know I'll be making these often.