Day 71

I heart weekends. Seriously. I'm as busy as a colony of ants during the week, but live for weekends full of friends, family, and REST. Weekends are the best! Especially holiday weekends!!!

I want to first start off by thanking so many people for commenting on my last blog. I seriously call all of you, in blogworld, my friends. It is so encouraging and affirming to hear all of your stories that relate so closely to mine! Whether adopting or not, we share the same heart for people...especially babies. I'm not sure what the solution to our down-spiral society is, but I'm praying. Hard. I'll let you know what comes of it!

Okay, back to the weekend. It was one of those weekends where I got to do a little bit of everything and I saw most of the people I love most. On the 4th, I got to spend time with my family (which is rare because most live out of state). Little Nya Grace is still the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. I mean seriously look at her. She has dimples just like her mama! I can't wait to giver her a little cousin!

My family is full of talent and I do mean FULL of talent. Our parents instilled a strong sense of "You can do anything you set your mind to" and it has proven to show itself in beautiful, creative and practical ways. My sis, Rachael, really wanted a stork in the front yard to celebrate Nya's birth. Other families would spend the $100 a week and rent a puny 5ft bird for the occasion. NOT MY FAMILY! No, sir. Rachael free hands a stork on some plywood (days after giving birth), my dad cuts it out with the saw, and the rest of the fam pitches in to sand and paint the thing. This stork stands at an impressive 8 ft tall! The coolest part [well, for me] is that Rachael wanted me to be able to use it too, so she made a star with Nya's information...and a heart for our baby, when the time comes! How special is that? Here's the pic--I KNEW you'd want to see it with your own eyes!

I also got a great jump start on the baby's room...do you know how foreign that sounds to say? In case you forgot, the theme is Moo La La...Sophisticated Cow. I didn't want to overwhelm the walls with cow print, but I still wanted them to have a little extra pizazz. I settled for horizontal stripes in two light shades of celery (remember the chair mom and sis bought is sage colored).


What I thought was going to take me days [maybe even weeks, with my schedule!], took a matter of hours with my new best friend. Meet the BullsEye. Perfect for all your horizontal striping needs!It's hard to see in the picture, but you hang the BullsEye on the wall with a small pin and it shoots level lasers across either side of the wall for perfect lines! I had to do very little measuring and I never had to worry about my lines being straight. My sister Gabrielle and sweet friend Meeghan came over and we had that room taped in to shape in a matter of a couple hours! Look at how cool the stripes are:
Don't get too impressed. The paint train slowed WAY down when I was working on painting the stripes today, by myself. You are only looking at a corner in the room because that's all I have finished so far! All the darker green stripes are done, but I have a ways to go. It still takes a long time because I have to peel up all the darker green tape and re-tape for the lighter green. Of course, there's bleeding and hiccups along the way that will need to be fixed too. A little time consuming, but well worth it. I love the look!

I also ordered a very essential part of the room, this weekend. A genuine cowhide rug! How cool is THIS going to look in the room:















And I don't want to hear any PETA comments. The poor cow already got eaten! I've seen similar hides in the stores that our just beautiful and amazingly soft. I ordered it on eBay, so we'll see how it looks! (I am able to return it)


Ben went back to the doctor to see how his collarbone is healing. Sadly, not very well. He's made little progress and is totally bummed out. You can see the break in the picture. it follows the curve of the bone [look all the way through the ribs]. The bad news is that Ben's summer plans are completely ruined...the good news? I'm totally attracted to Ben's x-ray man. Lean and muscular... man! I sure love me some Ben.

We had fun with close friends last night--BBQ and bonfire--and played hookey this morning...Slept in and went to breakfast with Chris & Meeghan!! It was a great weekend and it's still not over! I'm ordering pictures for our profile online and then we're off to the Rayners for more BBQing and pool time.

Me and Melia (Neice#1 by way of friends) She's trying very hard to smile for the camera!