Mary, Mary Quite Contrary

Remember that nursery rhyme? Well my name's not Mary, and I don't have pretty maids in my garden, but I can be contrary from time to time.

This is our little garden. I knew (still know) nothing about gardening when I started, and if I've learned nothing else, I've learned that when people tell you to give squash plants plenty of space you should give them plenty of space. Also, there are tons of blooms under those leaves, and so we're about to have a mother load of squash. Can you freeze fresh squash? You can't see it, but there are jalapenos, bell peppers, and tomatoes on the other plants. As long as we can keep them from being eaten by the alien mutant squash from outer space . . . 

In addition to gardening, I also have a new breakfast obsession (nice segue huh?) . . . 

You start with these . . . the most amazing English Muffins ever (they are great toasted with peanut butter, but that's an old breakfast obsession not a new one) (this is not a paid advertisement . . . this is true love)

Then you do this . . . I cook one egg over-easy in a little bit of butter flavored Pam (yes, I know, chemicals in a can) . . . clearly you can cook your egg however you please . . . with half a pound of butter . . . scrambled . . . fried . . . whatever floats your boat (excuse the sideways picture . . . too lazy to fix it)

Next I add tomatoes and a lot of little salt and pepper (and a paper plate because, again, I'm too lazy to wash a bunch of breakfast dishes)

And voila . . . you have my new breakfast obsession (I'm losing big points for presentation here)

So you would think I invented the breakfast sandwich as excited as I am about this. And I mean you could doctor it however you want . . . cheese . . . bacon . . . ham . . . oh McDonald's invented the breakfast sandwich? Or you could just go to the McDonald's drive thru and let them make one for you. Like I said . . . whatever floats your boat.

My Beef With the Girl Scouts

Every year about this time they make their appearance. They seem so cute and so innocent, but people let me tell you, those little girls with those sweet smiles are ruthless saleswomen at heart. In the cold, dark, middle of winter (did I mention that it was almost 80 here the other day?) they entice you to buy those little pieces of Heaven which clearly are laced with whatever people lace stuff with. They call them cookies, but y'all they are much more than cookies. No mere cookie has this kind of sway over me. I find myself thinking about them throughout the day wondering if Patrick took the last box of Thin Mints with him to work and working out a plan of action were I to arrive home and find the cupboard bare.

I say I buy them to support the Girl Scouts. I say I buy them because it's the charitable thing to do. But y'all let's face it. That is a big fat lie. I buy those cookies so I can eat them . . . and eat them . . . and eat them. And when I run out, I book it to the nearest Wal Mart praying that those sweet little girls are standing out in the cold with those little boxes of Heaven for me to purchase.

Which is why I inevitably gain 5 pounds every year around this time. This is also why my daughter will never be allowed to join the Girl Scouts. Neither my pocketbook or my waistline could afford to have Girl Scout cookies at my fingertips.

* Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing against the Girl Scouts. They are a marvelous organization. As the matter of a fact, I love and admire them for their cookies.

Transformation

This is our guest bedroom. The one with the closet full of junk. Remember my hoarding post? Yeah, so we did finally get that room cleaned up and it ended up looking like this.

Yeah there was a bed under all the junk. I was as shocked as anyone (just kidding - sort of).

When I started thinking about how to decorate the room, I knew I didn't want to change the paint color. You can't really see it but the room is painted a sort of light, bright green. Makes perfect sense right? It's not lime green, thank goodness, but it wasn't really the color we were going for when we painted the room. We were aiming for more of a sage green, but then we started painting and it wasn't really sage. However, being the wise economical people we are, we didn't just buy a little bit of paint to sample the color, we bought enough for the whole room, so we painted the whole room. It's all or nothing with us . . . that's how we roll. All the while I've always thought that I would love the color for a little girl's room, and so that was my starting point.

My other inspirations, so to speak, were these little birds.

These are called love birds. I've had them since I was a little girl. They were a gift from my best friend growing up, Happy. I've probably had them for twenty years, and I want them to be a part of my little girl's room. Aren't they just precious? (you must say that with a really thick southern drawl)

So I started browsing catalogs and the internet thinking it would take a while to find what I wanted. I don't like things to be too modern. I like a nice mixture of classic and country cottage. Low and behold one day I opened the PB Kids catalog and hallelujah, there staring me in the face was the perfect quilt for my little girl's room. The story of how I ended up buying the quilt can be found here. Long story short, I got a good deal on it. I decided to go ahead and order the shams, a pillow, and a lampshade to match. I have a fear of the stuff I need being discontinued. It happened with Andrew's bathroom. I bought the Dr. Seuss (One fish, Two Fish) themed shower curtain from PB Kids, fully intending to add the accessories. However, when I went back to get the accessories, they no longer had them. Grrrrr (exactly how many letter "r"s should I put on grrrrr?). Thank goodness the outlet still had some. So I stocked up. Anyway, sorry I wandered off on a bunny trail, I put everything on the bed this afternoon to get the full effect.

Obviously, there is still work to be done. The pictures from Hawaii hanging above the bed will have to find a new home as will the treadmill you can't see. The t.v. will have to go too because I have this thing about having televisions in kid's bedrooms. If your kids have one, I totally don't care, it's just a personal preference of ours.
Thankfully, we have a lot of time to get the room complete, but when our little lady finally does get to come home believe me her room will be ready.

And now, because I can, I'm going to leave you with some pictures. We got to hang out some friend's of ours Saturday night for barbecue, testimonies, and some good gospel music by the river. It was a lot of fun. And Andrew thoroughly enjoyed all the desserts.

Sorry ladies, neither one is on the market :)

Oreos and Other News

I'm sitting here eating Oreos. Believe me there are plenty of other things I should be doing. The kitchen needs to be cleaned up from dinner, we, as in Patrick and I, need to work on our adoption workbook/training, I should go run about 12 miles (see the first sentence), and there is laundry in the dryer that needs to be folded. But am I doing any of those things? Nope, I'm eating Oreos and typing a blog post. "Why?" you ask. "Because, I am, " I answer. By the way "because I am" and "because I did" are Andrew originals. "Andrew, why are you running around in nothing but underwear and tennis shoes (or boots depending on the day of the week)?" "Because I am." "Andrew, why did you lock the dog in the closet?" "Because I did." "Andrew why I are you out of bed for the 187th time tonight?" "Because I am." Really, the list could go on for an eternity, but I think you get the point.

In other news (I know, you can't imagine how it could get more exciting than me eating Oreos), all of our paperwork for the home study has been turned in. The home study coordinator is now going to assign us a social worker. Which means soon we will have interviews, both individually and as a married couple, where they ask personal questions about ourselves and our marriage. Which also means that along with the interviews we will have a home visit to inspect observe us in our home evironment. If you don't hear from me for a while I'll be in a closet somewhere hyperventilating. You see, a very nice, very well-meaning person, cornered me today and began telling me home study horror stories. When I was pregnant with Andrew, people would tell me pregnancy horror stories. I had to get to a point where I would just ask people not to tell me all the bad things that could happen in pregnancy. I may quickly reach that same point with adoption. It's not that I so much mind advice or that I'm in denial about all the realities of adoption, but I don't need to hear a laundry list of things that might possibly go awry before, during, or after the home study process. So, if you don't mind, will you please pray that we are assigned a social worker that understands us and works well with our family? And will you also pray that our homestudy goes well and is completed and approved as quickly as possible? And if you have any good pointers from personal experience, you know things like make sure you brush your teeth or give Andrew his weekly bath on the day of the home visit, I would much appreciate them. But please no stories about how your son threw up on your social worker. I just don't need to know.