A little more snow......

We got a little snow today! It didn't last long, but it was pretty and I managed to snap a couple pics as I was leaving for work and before it started to turn to rain that washed it all away........

Adoption update: We are "officially" number 14 on the list at last "official" update (but I think we are actually moved up a slot, but we'll see next time we ask.....We are hoping there are at least a couple more referrals this month, but with Tet (the Vietnamese New Year Holiday) coming soon, that may slow things down this month for a bit with gov. offices being closed some with all the celebrations in Vietnam. We can only wait and see....and hope. Considering at Christmas we were still number 19, that is definitely an improvement. Happy February!

Our House- Part 2

Thanks for all the sweet comments about our little money pit--you are all welcome to join the neighborhood anytime! Come on down!

Well, we got a lot done on the house-work today (the work on the house, that is--the housework still needs some attention! :) ) We got a wall opened up and moved and widened the opening into the kitchen. The work continues today as well, hopefully we will get the new powder room framed up.......We have been renovating our house for what seems like half my life. In reality, we bought it almost 5 years ago as what is affectionately known as a "fixer-upper" or a "handyman special". It was set up as a duplex with one unit upstairs and one downstairs with a common foyer. We moved into the downstairs and commenced to making a lot of very needed cosmetic repairs and gutting and rebuilding the bathroom--(all upstairs). We scraped off over 80 years of painted-over wallpaper down to the plaster in the two bedrooms and then painstakingly repaired all the cracks and loose areas. When it was livable again, our friend Katie lived up there for two years while we redid all the landscaping, had the exterior painted, built a large deck, and started to renovate the downstairs.......which we thought we would do one room at a time while we lived down there. Well, we got halfway done with the sun room and figured out that was *not* a good plan! We sectioned off that room with plastic and lived that way for over a year. After two nice years with Katie sharing our house, we decided it was time to kick it into gear if we ever planned on this adoption coming reality. Our plan was to get the upstairs to a point that we could move up there and get through the home study and work on the downstairs while we waited. We basically started all over again. Mind you, we are doing almost all of work ourselves...on the weekends.....We have passed up many an invitation in order to "work on the house" because in our minds, a day or a weekend without house progress was that much longer in pushing the day we could start the adoption paperwork. It had already taken longer than we would have liked. We took all the plaster down to the studs except for the two bedrooms that we had worked so hard to save. We worked with an electrician and rewired the entire upstairs (and if you have ever lived in an old house, outlets are hard to come by--I now have an outlet on almost every wall!), had central air added, added a pair of french doors & access to the attic, hung and finished all the new sheetrock, etc. Finally the day came and we moved up and we soon afterward set out to start all the adoption paperwork. Now that the ball is starting to roll along with the adoption finally.......Now the renovation begins again. The goal is to convert it back once again to a single family residence, but it must remain separated until the downstairs is almost complete. Since we have some months to wait for referral and travel, the time has come to start it all over again downstairs. We are in the demolition phase at the moment. We hope to be pretty close to finishing by the time Buttercup comes home and plan on hiring out some of the very time consuming parts that we learned the the hard way..... such as plaster removal and sheet rock (the absolute most frustrating and slow labor I have ever done!) so we are hoping it moves along much quicker than the upstairs did. It will make the wait pass very fast, I'm sure. So, now you have the low-down on another "member" of our family--the member that keeps us safe and warm....... and very busy!

I will try to update as we progress on the mess!

Our House: A.K.A. The Money Pit :) Part 1

" If you sweep a house, and tend its fires and fill its stove, and there is love in you all the years you are doing this, then you and that house are married, that house is yours." ~ Truman Capote

This is our house. It has been the center of our life so far since we encountered it. It truly does contains our blood, sweat, and yes, tears. I really identify with the quote above. The house was built in 1923. We are the third owners. Each owner has lived here over 35 years. We plan on staying in this house and raising our family. It is not a flip. This house has become a part of us. Our neighborhood is the old kind you don't see anymore--there are sidewalks and alleys, green parks, and we can walk to shopping and the library and to the neighborhood school. Every house is different and charming in it's own way as only old houses can be. They are quirky. They're not meant to be perfect. There are Easter egg hunts, July 4 parades, Labor Day cookouts, progressive dinners, lemonade stands--you get the picture. Even though we haven't participated in much of these activities yet, that is what we wanted for our children. We fell in love with the house and the neighborhood. Now, if we can just get it finished!!

Whew!! It's OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Look closely, can you see my blood, sweat and tears on these documents????

Well, believe me, it's all in there. I finally got the whole thing authenticated, but not without yet more incident that entailed me actually having to run (yes, I did the real, actual Dossier Dash--and I am out of shape!) back to my car, fly home, get something else they needed and go back before they would authenticate the last document-- (And YES, they were the docs I had been waiting on that set us back two weeks!!) I wasn't about to let them push me off another day, and yes, I did tell the lady I was going to lose it. :) She wasn't amused, but I really was (about to lose it, that is. Amused, I was not.). So whether Vietnam likes it or not, they are getting my attachments that they did not ask for, because the SOS says they have to---just thought they might need a couple more bits of our life!!!! Ha, ha.


BUT, the important thing is.......the dossier is OUTTA HERE and on it's way to our agency to be sent for authentication and then on to Hanoi. Whew! Dossier, check! Bring on the next step! Bring on our referral!

I think I'm gonna have that glass of wine now! Happy Friday everyone, and thanks so much for your comments of sympathy!!!! I needed them!

It's Ready!!

I just called and it's ready!! I'm off to go pick it up--Wish me luck--I will update later! :)