Tuscan, Arizona

We just got back from spending a wonderful relaxing 4 days in Tuscan, AZ.

On the drive down we made a short detour to visit the Mesa, AZ Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This tradition was initiated by Raylene when we were first married, which is to visit any near by Temples while we are traveling and we have always enjoyed it a great deal. After spending some time inside and touring the grounds (temple photos) we continued on to Oro Valley, AZ where we would be staying and checked into our room at Worldmark Rancho Vistoso resort.

After spending 9 hours in the car and 2 hours at the temple we were well ... exhausted! So we threw the clothes somewhere in the closet and sat down to eat dinner and just slow down for the evening.

Friday was spent in total relaxed veggitation state within our cool air conditioned room, we did not want to run around and sweat ourselves into oblivion just yet. We did however eat some good food, Raylene got her TLC and Food Network fix, and Patrick re-read a book from one of his favorite book series, Misborn The Well of Ascension. We also made a run to the grocery store for some necessities, ice cream being one of them. :)

Saturday, we went the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where me met a hawk, investigated scores of reptiles, crawled through a mini-underground cave, saw a mountain lion,
oogled at rattle snakes (well Patrick did at least), meet some iguanas, and enjoyed seeing a host of other desert creatures and desert life: turtles, tarantulas, a glow in the dark scorpion, desert flowers and vegetation, dinosaur fossils, many brilliantly colored minerals, a bobcat, an ocelot, some prairie dogs, some Mexican wolves, two beavers, and coati.

The only sad part was the otter's were a no-show in their exhibit :( . We did take bunch of photos at the museum as well and you can view those here.

Sunday came and we checked out and then drove home. We had a great time and really enjoyed ourselves.

Homestudy Update

With the carpet installed and the baseboards touched up, I was more than ready to move everything back into the house. I figured it out today, it has been over 5 months since we have been fully unpacked - It was really starting to get old! Last night, with the help of my family, we moved most of it back. Some days when I start a project, I don't want to stop until it is completely finished, last night was one of those nights. It was a good thing too, because we got a call after 10:00pm from our social worker stating he was able to set up our walk-through appointment for tomorrow morning (today). I was so glad that the house was already back together. We knew that when we moved we would have to get an update and with a referral once again in hand, it was something that we couldn't put off. We were glad that we could schedule the meeting for 6:30am, since we had planned to leave on vacation to Tuscan about that time. The whole process took about 20 minutes and cost us an additional $150, even though we had already paid the $200 fee. Our agency has it in writing that we would not be charge more than $50 for travel, but then the visit was subcontracted out and that social worker had the additional charge. We will definitely be talking to WIAA and try to get this staightened out. It seems that everywhere we turn lately there is another fee, but I keep trying to remind myself that it will all be worth it to get our kids home. We were able to leave on vacation just an hour later than planned and are one more step closer to having all our paperwork in order.

Laying It Down

We are slowly but surely making this house a place we are pleased to call home. Today the installers came by around 9:00 am and were done just after lunch time. So something to consider when purchasing new carpet for your home is how thick your current carpet is versus how thick your new will be. We decided to go with a slightly thinner carpet and it did not occur to us until after the new one was installed that we should have painted the base boards while the floor was bare, so now there is a slight color change along the bottom edge of the base boards where the old carpet covered them up and we need to paint them with the newer high gloss white that we put on just prior to moving in. Actually hind sight being 20/20, had I known that we were going to replace the carpet I would have ripped it out before moving in painted the base boards, and then installed the carpet before bringing in all the furniture.

Oh well, it looks great and everyone in the family loves the new fresh carpet smell and the color matches the walls much better. Even the cats have placed their seal of approval on the latest remodeling changes. Raylene's parents and sister came over to help vacuum up the new carpet fuzzys and touch up the base boards before moving the furniture back in place. All in all we are very pleased with the new carpet and also very glad to have our home back. I never realized how critical carpet is to making a house feel like home. Have you ever tried to relax in a house that doesn't have any carpet? I guess the furniture being packed in the garage also had something to do with it, but if I had the choice between carpet and furniture I would take the carpet. Needless to say we spent the weekend with Raylene's family because there was nothing inviting about hanging around our house once the carpet was gone.

The Dogs Move Out

One of great things about purchasing a foreclosure home is the renovation. We have noticed several signs of previous pets in the home, one of those has been moldy smell of dogs in the carpet with the primary location being the first room on the right as you enter the hallway as well as some other areas. We have tried all the major solutions, vacuuming (lots), shampooing (lots), and different order absorbing resources, the dogs refuse to vacate the premises. Well, it is time we start playing hard ball, using force. We removed the carpet.

Friday night Raylene's parents and sister, surprise surprise, came over help us move the furniture and things off the carpeted areas and into the garage. Saturday morning, our Home Teachers came over to help with the destruction and Raylene's family once again came over to help and we finished it all in much less than two hours, including taking the carpet and pad to the dump. Now every room the house echos very well and some time Monday morning the installers will be here with our brand new carpet!

So little by little our home looks nicer and nicer and I grow more and more in IOU debt. ;)

We Officially Say, Yes! ... Round Two

Here we go again, hopeful and ready to bring home two children and welcome them into our lives forever. We gladly signed the papers again and eagerly printed off pictures to carry with us to show anyone who was interested. We received the referral on Monday and spent all week trying to gather additional information. Normally, one would contact a pediatrician and have them review the medical documents that come with the referral. Since we moved I tried using our old family doctor because they would already have us on file and we had not moved our records yet, but he took all week to say yeah or nay on helping us and then turned us down indicating we should find someone else; thanks, but no thanks. Anyway, there actually was nothing on the children's records to give much concern so we went ahead and signed the papers today, since we have to give a response within a week according to policy and mailed them off to our agency Children's Hope International (CHI).

We are not out of the fire yet, but we are one step closer, the next step is a scheduled court date in the Ethiopian courts which could be several weeks before we have a time frame. So don't hold your breath, besides nobody looks very good when they are blue; except maybe Smurfette!

Scrapbooking

Mom, Shi and I have spent the last 4 days scrapbooking and having fun. As a belated graduation celebration, us girls went up to Midway, UT and had a wonderful relaxing time. Those of you who know us well can imagine how full the Durango was with all of our supplies. We could seriously open up a supply store with all of it - but what can I say - we love it. Midway is a beautiful town up in the mountains, it was green and we had rain off and on the whole time there! We all decided to work on our Hawaii trip that we took to Oahu 2 years ago (yes, we are really behind) and didn't get as much done as we had hoped, but we did have a really good time and ate yummy food. I also spent a lot of time stareing at the beautiful faces of our children-to-be, so beyond adorable. All in all, this has been a wonderful week.

Our Adoption Referral

According to Garfield, Monday's are the worst day of the week, today was an exception to that rule. Early this morning I received a call while at work from our adoption case worker and Raylene was already conferenced in on the call. The call as you can tell from the post's title was for an adoption referral! We are very happy to be moving forward after our most recent mishap, however I think this time I'll wait a little longer before shouting it to the world just in case something goes awry which is a reality in life.

Last time I think I jinxed the whole thing by sharing too much information before it was permissible, so this time I am trying not to goof up the process by giving a little information as possible.

I believe I can divulge the basics, it is a referral for two children, a girl and a boy with ages of about 5 and 3 years respectively. Honestly, that is what I was hoping for because although I would have taken any combination, I felt that I wanted a boy and a girl with out any specific age. The reason being that I didn't know how long it would be before we could adopt again so I wanted to enjoy having both sides of the child gender spectrum. Seriously there are experiences that are unique to each and I want to have them all. So call me a bit selfish for wanting to have my cake and eat it too. ;)