WHOA...

can I just tell you that this roller coaster ride I've been on for the past 11 months just picked up speed! I was driving home from work the other day thinking about how things are about to drastically change in 6 weeks (or less!) and I felt like I was going to throw up! seriously.

In the past two weeks: Fern has been issued a new birth certificate and passport. Not sure what her last name is right now..she might have the combo name..Fernanda Isabel Schroer Warren. Yeah, that's a mouth full - that's why we are changing her last name to Schwarren! Yesterday, she had DNA sample taken - which should make its way to the Lab in NC in the next few days. who knows..we might hear from the us embassy with our appt date in the next 2-3 weeks.

oh and forgot to share...stupid cat - Rex drooled on my head the other night. It was like 5 am in the morning (yes, I was sound asleep) and he's near my head "making biscuits" in my hair and drooled right on my forehead. I was horrified!

The Crawdad Hole

Got to go out to a buddies private pool (a.k.a. 'The Crawdad Hole') on Friday and shoot some skating pictures. It was good to be at a session, even if I couldn't skate.

Yes thats a real, fully plumbed pool, but built for skating, come every fall, they empty it and its a skaters paradise until the next summer. Its funny to be at a session, drinking beer and cheering anytime sometime does something really cool, then completely changing the subject to cribs, adoption and baby things. Man we must be old.


You can see some more photos here

Happy Easter..

WOW..

Yes, we are officially freaking out! We are going to be parents - that sounds so weird. Rex has been doing a good job of getting us ready for the big life altering changes that are about to come our way - he likes to wake us up around 4:00am and is constantly meowing at us to play with him. He is so high maintenance!

For those who are interested... we now have to wait for them to issue a new birth certificate & passport (with her new last name!). Once we get the BC, then we can submit a request to the US Embassy for authorization to do the 2nd DNA testing (they check to make sure the baby is the same baby that started the adoption process). The lab results are sent to LabCorp in Burlington NC of all places. Once the US Embassy approves the DNA results - they send us an email - its called the "pink slip" giving us the date of our appointment in Guatemala City!! Then we really freak out. We will have anywhere from 3 to 21 days notice before we have to travel.

Thanks for checking in. I hear jer downstairs doing the dishes..I feel kinda of guilty, especially since he cooked too. But ya know..after those 3 weeks of taking care of him 24/7 - I don't feel so bad!

FERNANDA IS COMING HOME!!!!

FERNANDA IS COMING HOME!!!!

We got the call this afternoon. We are officially out of PGN.

We still have a few weeks to go, 6-8 weeks for various and assorted documents and what not, but our little girl is finally coming home.

so much to do, I think we're both freaking out a bit, but neither one of us can get these grins off of our faces.

More details to come.

I love when we get to spring forward...

although I hate losing that hour in the morning ..I love coming home and still having 2-3 hours of sunlight. I'm pleased to report that we have officially started composting. There is this old wood & metal structure at the back of the property line that the last owner left behind - I'm kicking myself that we didn't start 3 yrs ago when we first moved in. We dumped in our first bucket of kitchen scraps tonight after preparing veggies for beef stew dinner.

My rain barrels are full! Jer is already talking about buying a few more and lining them up along the side of the house. When the first barrel is full, the overflow then continues on to the next barrel and then the next and so on and so on..until our house floats away!

We are still waiting for "the call" from our agency to say that we are finally out of PGN. This time around the waiting is really hard. We are getting close to her first b-day. Also, I've seen other families getting out in 2 weeks - crazy fast times. I saw a case that was submitted on Feb 18th that is out. Hello -we went in on the 14th..its so friggin not fair! We are totally at the mercy of these four people at the PGN that must each review our file and sign off on everything. bribery is sounding better and better every day (just kidding!). My friend Belinda was actually just vacationing in Guatemala with some of her friends..she said she would be glad to bring back a little bundle for me - very tempting!!!!

that's all for now..hoping to report good news soon.

BIG SIGH COUNTRY

(i just had to bump that pic to the top, you know she does get priority here)

Big Sigh 1

Its getting very frustrating waiting on news about Fernanda. It seems like we've been waiting forever now. One of the guys I've skated with in the past is also in the same process, well not anymore he and his wife just did their pickup this month. It just makes us both wonder why? WHY??? Why are they getting out and not us? There's just no rhyme or reason for any of this, we were pretty much on schedule with them, how come they get to come home already and we don't???

Her room is coming along with just a few odds and ends to get together now, Selina has been chuggin along like a mad woman getting all of that done. In the battle of Selina vs. Martha Stewart, my money is on Selina. She'd build the shelf, frame the picture, paint a wall and still manage to knock out Martha's teeth. (granted thats barring prison rules) But then she'd make those cookies I love and we'd all laugh about it later. Its a good thing.

In a week or two, once I'm able to stand for a good while, I'll start painting clouds on the ceiling. The room really is looking amazing. I think we may need Ferns input on a few things though, so she needs to be here. You know "supervising" things. Plus she needs to meet Rex before he thinks he has this pad all to himself, we need to set some ground rules for "the boy".


Big Sigh 2

The doctor has allowed me to go without the brace now, good thing too, I was about to huck that thing out of the window.
Still rockin the cane as a safety device, but getting much stronger, my mom thinks I should get a cape to go along with the cane. I think she's right.

I found this video from palm springs, I do miss the skating, I want to roll again.




and another from our local spot, project 58 (don't make fun of my "jazz hands")

Mock up Smock up

So this is what I was working on on the couch during my down time.

There will be 4 all together, with 5 of each character so 5 full sets of 4 different folks at the bustop, these are just mockups done on the computer, but the final output will be two color screen prints on finished maple plywood. (not skateboards, but similar construction style, decks are for skating, art is for hanging)

Yeah I'm a weirdo, but I have had this idea of doing regular people in gas-masks for a while, maybe its the world we live in, maybe I'm just insane, but it does let you tell your own story about the folks in these pieces, everyone is going to have their own interpretation of whats going on, I encourage that, make up your own story.

These were all hand drawn, then scanned and taken into the computer to sharpen up the line art, still need to finish up a few things in the basement before i can really start printing, but its getting really close.

Enjoy.

Bring on the rain..

Got my birthday present today from Jer - two 55-gallon rain barrels!!! They are big and ugly but will be extremely useful during the drought. now it just needs to rain.

Getting excited for my birthday dinner tomorrow night (I'm SO glad I married an amazing chef!)....for those of you interested - jer's playing a little "iron man hef" - he has three main ingredients - rack of lamb, local collard greens and local sweet potatoes.

Here is a picture of Rex - he's such a show cat!





And here is pic of Fern (sure hope she's not allergic to cats!)