And then it was Autumn

Well, I guess I skipped September. We can’t all be perfect bloggers.

Let’s see…

We spent most of our free time in September doing more… can you guess?

HOUSE PROJECTS!

• I painted the mudroom/laundry room
• We replaced the light fixtures in the kitchen and removed the ugly, long, florescent lights
• When we took the florescent lights down, we discovered they had painted the ceiling around the fixtures so Brian had to repaint the entire kitchen ceiling
• We decided to bite the bullet and paint our kitchen cabinets

Without further ado…Here are some pics.

House Projects

The ugly florescent lights we removed.

the mudroom mid project. I forgot to take a true 'before' picture

After. It's definitely a prettier room for the pets to eat in.

Before. Like, REALLY before. We forgot to take before photos so we had to go back to the pics from the
previous owners. We don't have two microwaves and that guy doesn't live with us.

After

After

Leaf Peeping

Of course we made sure we fit in some leaf peeping but it seems we were a little late this year for the full-blown show. We still enjoyed some fall colors off of Kebler Pass outside of Crested Butte.

Look at Stella's face. She loves this picture because it looks like she's the only dog.

Just kidding. Cotton was there too.

Brian's Birthday

Brian had his annual birthday! He asked me to make Butter Chicken, Indian Rice, and Naan. I also made him a 3-layer cake (my first time attempting that many layers) that put us into diabetic comas. Success.

Whitworth Homecoming/10 Year Reunion

The first weekend of October we flew to Spokane for Brian to attend his 10-year college reunion. Only recently have I realized that apparently no one has, or goes to, college reunions. I guess Whitworth is unique that way. I also realized that I love my college more than the average folk. We enjoyed the Homecoming festivities and spent time with long-lost friends; it felt very nice to reconnect with that phase of my (our) life.

I almost squealed when I realized no one else was coming and I think the neighboring rows picked up on
my sheer joy because no one took the flight attendant up on the offer to move over to the window seat.
Thank you, to whoever you all were, for suffering so I could enjoy an entire row to myself for 2 hours.

Spokane

We had breakfast with my BFF, Sarah, and then stole her children. My mom gets worried
when I use the word 'stole' in reference to children. Just to be clear, Sarah (their mother) is the
one who took this picture, and we did give them back.

Whitworth got all "Wolf of Wall Street"

I was trying to look badass, not miserable.

Brian's college pals, in front of the house they lived in.

Us and the 'Loop'

Got to connect with Kate! That was a fun surprise. She's known Brian forever and was in our wedding.

Whitworth couple. Go ahead and gag.

The gang is growing! This picture makes me feel like I'm on the show 'Parenthood'.

photo cred: the Crosby tri-pod

Adoption

We have also made some progress on the adoption front. We reviewed our final home study report before it went to the State. We needed to give it our “yes, this is true” stamp of approval. It was pretty weird reading such a diagnostic report about yourself and your life. I kind of feel like it was mostly a report about me and my idiosyncrasies, with minimal stuff about Brian. Even the stuff about Brian was somehow mostly about me. It’s now officially recognized by the State of Colorado that I’m the crazy one in the relationship. Fine. Moving on.

All that to say, they are recommending us as adoptive parents and are working on our final license. Therefore, now all we can do is wait. It really does try one’s faith, hope, and patience to feel like you are ‘expecting’ but not know when. It feels premature to do anything in preparation for a baby to arrive in our lives but at the same time it feels all-too-natural to start doing those things, and I so far have not found a comfortable balance in this purgatory.

My mom brought me some of my childhood things and they are sitting in a corner of the future nursery, waiting just like we are. This past weekend she brought me my little wicker rocking chair, which is now sitting in our living room. I find that I constantly glance over at it while watching TV, picturing a fuzzy ghost child rocking in it. The child who will completely change my world, for whom I mostly feel ready, but a lot of times don’t.

As soon as we finalized everything and I realized there was nothing left to do but wait, I suddenly felt like my life was spiraling out of control. Up to this point in the process, I had tangible things I could do and I had control over those things; but now those things are all done and I'm grasping at straws. All I can do now is trust God’s timing which is a whole hell of a lot easier said than done.

The main problem is: I like control. I like to plan.

This part really sucks for me.

The only analogy I have is that it feels like God is planning a surprise party for us. A party that will completely change the rhythm of our lives (and take away a lot of our sleep). But we only suspect he’s up to something and have no idea when, how, or even IF, he’s going to do it.

In order to get some sense of control back in my life, I’ve taken to staying on top of cleaning my house. I see a mess and I tell myself, “I can control that”, so I do. Maybe that will continue to be my coping mechanism and we’ll benefit from a continuously clean house for once in our lives. That means you can now stop by unexpectedly and we can actually feel okay about letting you inside. 

I would suggest you take advantage of that while you still can…