Paintball Adventures

Because Carter spends his actual birthday at his mom's house he get's two birthdays at our house.  We celebrate with the family before he leaves and then he gets to celebrate with his friends when he gets back. This year we celebrated in Encinitas while we there before he left and today we celebrated with friends by playing paintball.

This was my first time ever experiencing the wars of paintball.  The boys were geared up like G.I.Joe, I was much more limited in my attire.  We headed out to Dragon Man's out east because that way if we need to rent any gear, get bottles filled, etc, it is all conveniently right there. 

Dragon Man's has 5 huge paint ball courses with all sorts of obstacles to hide behind and run around.  There 6 of us total that were playing today. Chad, Carter, Cole (next door neighbor and Carter's best friend) John and Shane Santos (next door neighbors from a previous house we lived in) and of course, ME!

We sweated under the sun in 80 degree weather on the prairie.

We played for about 5 hours, went through about 4,000 paintballs and had a blast!

We played some games by ourselves and a couple of games other people joined us.

We all walked away with at least one decent welt, I walked away with 5 decent welts, skinned knees and elbows.

Carter ended up with paint in his ear, we all had paint and dirt ground into our clothes.

Lots of cleaning when we got home!

Showing off our painted clothes

I kicked some serious paintball butt and had a blast doing it.  I am now tired, sore and aching, but it was so worth it!

Home Study Update

I am a little behind in blogging.  We have now had two of our three home study appointments. Let me back up a week and a half.  Our first home study was the individual interview with Chad and Carter.  I had to work that day, but that's OK because we all have to do our own interviews anyway.  I really cannot write much about their interviews because, well, for those of you who know my husband, he is a man of few words.  Let's just say that their interviews stayed within the one hour time frame we had planned.  Chad told me that I would have to "find out when it was my turn" when I asked him what she asked.


Fast forward one week to this past Wednesday.  My turn.  Can I just tell you how much I admire Jill and enjoy her bubbly personality and character.  She is amazing and I feel so comfortable with her, well as comfortable as I can feel sharing every little detail of my life.  We again had an hour scheduled this time with me, Chad was at work and Carter was at school.  My interview lasted two hours and we have to use another hour next week because we didn't have time to go into some of the questions and events that she needed more details.  A lot has gone on in my life, but I am lady of many details, and she did not tell me "short version" as Chad is so fond of saying.  When I did elude to events she would hone in and ask me to expound anyway, so it really was not totally my fault.


With this process you have to fill out different surveys before the "interview" and then Jill flags issues, details, events that show up on them, she also has to have a good feel for who you are and what helped shape who you are today.  Needless to say, there were lots of flags in my survey and interview.  She says that I am a well-rounded person today, but she needs to truly understand how I became who I am today so that it can be portrayed accurately when she writes up our home study.  


I was also able to ask her questions.  There is so much unknown about this whole process but she does a great job of trying to help me work through all of this in such a caring and compassionate way.

Jill says that we are great candidates for placement, which is exciting, she said that with our medical background and somewhat workable schedules as well as all that she knows about us, all the case managers are going to want to place kids with us.  It will be her job to make sure that we get children that will fit well with our family.


I am trying not to jump the gun, but also hate sitting and doing nothing.  So, I put up a crib.  Chad's mom had Chad's crib and had held onto it for us, so Carter and I went and picked it up and I set it up in the bedroom.  We have no way of knowing if we will use or need it, but now we have a bed in the room.  Something that we have to have to prove we are ready.  We have access to twin beds if needed for older children.  Candy also gave us some crib linens in an amazing beautiful pink, which I did not put on the bed because I felt that it was jumping the gun.  I have refrained from bringing up all the other baby stuff that I collected when I was pregnant with Aubrey.  Because I have it stored in the basement, I will leave it there for the time being.  Teri, Chad's sister has a variety of stuff for us as well.  Illa and some of the girls at work are excited for us and have boys and girls toys and clothes of different sizes that are available whenever we know what we might need!  


We are so blessed to have supportive people around us.  They are supporting us emotionally as well as with tangible gifts as needed.
There is no way to explain how much it warms my heart to have others excited for us and want to know how things are going!!!!


This Wednesday is the final home study, Chad and I together and the rest of my individual.  Jill says she will have the home study complete on Friday.  Friday evening and Saturday we have our adoption training.  At that point we will be waiting on fingerprints to complete our license!  Jill will be able to send out our home study even without our license!


Things are happening so fast and yet so slow.  I am trying to prepare my heart for the amazing things that God is bringing into our lives!!!!

Ready, Set, Paint

I have come to the realization that I have control issues--between Me and God mostly, but in general.  I like to be in the "know", to make decisions, to have all the facts and information ahead of time so that I can make an informed, educated decision.  Well, my life does not work like that.  
My job is to trust God when I don't have the options or information or choices that I would like, because after all, He sees the big picture and understands where I am going and why.
This is why I live a walk of faith.  
So, I do not have the luxury of knowing that I am preparing for a little bitty baby and all that it entails, I do not know that we need to be ready for a toddler or a pre-schooler or an elementary age child.  I don't have the luxury of a due date or even an approximate date.  We may not have any more notice than a few hours or we may have longer.  We don't know if we will get 1, 2 or maybe more children at the same time.  We may not ever have children.  We don't know if they will be boys or girls.  


We don't know what will happen come May when our lease is up! Our landlords want to sell the house but we are not necessarily in a position where we can finance the house, especially in the current economy and the status of our jobs.


Are you beginning to understand how difficult this situation can be for a person who likes a well ordered, organized life?  Yes, this is my life.


So, that said, the areas that I can prepare for, I will and I will trust and lean completely on the amazing grace of God as He has gotten me this far!


We know that all children need a bedroom!  That is something that we can work on.


So, Carter and I went on a quest yesterday.  A quest unrelated to much of anything that ended on a different path.  (I actually was looking for a shelf for my nail polish so that I can see them, but I am rather particular and never found what I was looking for.) 
We found ourselves at Lowe's and is my habit when I am at any store, I look at the clearance rack for anything that I can't live without.  Well, this time is was the paint clearance rack.  Most of my recent decorating and painting has been done off of this rack.  There are a broad spectrum of colors on the "mess up" rack and it was no different this time.  In my mind I wanted the paint the room a "khaki" color.  I consider this a neutral color that will go with almost any theme that I can come up with and can easily be adapted to pink or blue as necessary.  My ever so wise husband suggested that we paint a neutral color and wait for decorations until we have a child and then put up a border, curtains etc with an appropriate theme.  (I really don't like it when he is so smart and wise at moments that I am so motivated, but mostly just because it means that I was focused on something and my rock hard head didn't want to change paths.) 
So Carter and I found a gallon of paint that had potential.  It was a nice creamy shade of brown that Carter declared much too dark.  but it was only $5.00.  So away my brain goes, he is probably correct, but right next to this gallon was a quart of creamy paint for $2.60.  I ask the paint guy if i lighten this will it have a yellow base?  I am not a fan of yellow bases, I prefer red or blue.  He assured me that if it did anything it would be a red base.  For $20, we purchased the necessary supplies and the paint and headed home to create a warm and inviting space.  
Carter decided we should not tell Chad, but instead keep it a surprise.  (He was at work for the weekend.)  Paint away we did, Carter was very excited about getting to paint and be involved, so we turned on music and got started.  We eventually evolved to Adventures in Odyssey which we both enjoy.  
Initially, when we smeared the paint on the wall to check the color in our own lighting Carter declared it was "monkey poop color", obviously this was not appropriate.  We mixed in our quart of paint and tried again, now we had "monkey diarrhea", still not an appropriate color, add some more white that we found in the garage and we came up with "hot chocolate".  A color we were both happy with.  Life is always entertaining when you have a combination of a 13 year old and my imagination.  I would like all of you to know that we mixed our own color and painted the whole room with no disastrous stories or escapades to share.  Disappointing, isn't it?

Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows 

We transformed the yellow, very feminine room into a warm, albeit very empty room.


Carter eventually went out to play with friends while I worked on the edging and the trim and listened to Anne of Green Gables.


We successfully painted the room finishing up for dinner at 9 pm.  Ok, a little focused and lost in my own little world, we ended up staying up until midnight but we had such a good time together that it was worth it.  And today is Labor Day so we didn't have a specific agenda or schedule for the day.  

Finished Product (and a new hair cut)

Carter took care of all of the outlet covers and light switch plate covers himself.  
Chad was impressed with our hard work and liked the color.  


Now we begin to look for other necessary items, a bed, dresser, etc. 


We start our home study this week.  Chad and Carter have their individual interviews and we turn in copies of all sorts of things. 


Step by step we are getting there.  Focusing on the little things helps keep me sane.