Thanksgiving (Old Site)

As promised, I return with an update from the Kovar front. I have very, very happy and long anticipated news... our home study has been completed! Andy and I first contacted our adoption agency in December of last year, so it has been a long and arduous process to finish this task. So now what? We wait. The home study was a huge step down the path to parenthood for us, and we are thrilled to have it done!

We also have been very busy at work, which seems to be the case during this time every year. Andy and I have begun to prepare for the holidays, and I’m excited to hit good shopping specials on Black Friday. We are dog-sitting Porter for a week and a half, which has been fun. Boone and Porter seem to be more and more comfortable with each other every day. Boone celebrated his 25-week birthday yesterday... just one more week to six months. At six months I am going to stop updating pictures for him every week. I guess that means that I will have to find something else to take pictures of! If you want to see his progression to today, take a look at Boone’s Album.

I finished the latest book that I was reading, “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer. My manager recommended the book to me - a novel for young adults that tells the story of a teenager that comes into contact with vampires. (Quite the switch from “The Kite Runner.”) Given the material and subject, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun the book was to read. I found myself staying awake for the majority of Friday night because I couldn’t put the book down. Tonight I will start book two, “New Moon,” and I’m hoping that I get some sleep this week. :)

Andy and I have been spending more time then usual on the Wii lately, as we have the new Super Mario Galaxy. It is a really fun game! I am excited because My Sims will be out soon too, and I love everything Sims. On television, we’ve been enjoying Chuck, Brothers and Sisters and the Office... and then I’ve been enjoying Dancing with the Stars and Desperate Housewives. We haven’t really added many of the new shows to our repertoire this year, but we find ourselves more than occupied just trying to keep up with what we already watch.

As I was web surfing earlier today, I found a quote by William Faulkner that gave me pause, “Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used up in order to exist at all.” During this week of Thanksgiving, I find myself caught up in reminiscing over a year chock full of change, with a healthy dose of trial and a measure of fun. I have spent much time worrying, complaining and fretting over the things we have faced. Now I wish I would have spent a little more time appreciating the things that helped us make it through, and the lessons that we learned at the end of each step. While I don’t think gratefulness should be saved for one day a year, I’m glad that we get an annual reminder to stop and appreciate what we’ve been given.

I’m thankful for our families, and the friends that we consider to be an extension of our family. I’m grateful that we were able to take such fun vacations with each other and our families this year. I’m grateful for our social worker, our adoption agency, and the dozens of people that have assisted us in the adoption process to this point. Most of all, I’m grateful for Andy. This Thanksgiving, I am closer to my husband than I ever have been. It’s amazing how the effort to step through challenges can bring two people to a better place.

Thanksgiving is such a special time for us all to reflect on the past and to appreciate all those who make life bearable. We may not see you this Thursday, but we hope that you all have a great holiday!

Blog Holiday (Old Site)

Hello friends and family! Last time I skipped blogging for a week (or two) I received several emails from you... checking in to see how things were going and to make sure that we are alright.

Well, this week I am declaring a blog holiday. :) Everything is good here, we are just tired and busy. Next week I promise I will catch everyone up.

We hope that you are all doing well and having a great November!

The Peak of Autumn (Old Site)

Today is my favorite day of the year. It is the day that I gain an extra hour as the clocks fall back. You may be wondering what my least favorite day of the year is? That would be the day that the clocks spring forward an hour - and I spend the next month always tired and trying to catch up to everyone else. This year daylight savings came a week later than my internal clock expected it... but I have been enjoying it all the same.

The other good thing about daylight savings day is that it has always signified to me that the peak of autumn has arrived. Having lived in Southern California for most of my childhood, autumn is a season that I felt I missed out on. Every year I look forward to it in Washington. Autumn is truly my favorite season, and what an autumn we are having this year. For Seattle, we have had very little rain and the air was been nice, crisp and cool. I don’t remember a year that the leaves were more vibrantly colored, or that the weather allowed me so many excursions to enjoy it. It’s hard for me not to be happy with scenery like this.

This week was a good one for us, and it wasn’t too busy. We tried several new recipes from a Weight Watchers cookbook that I’ve had for a few years ... and were pleasantly surprised to find that all of them were delicious! We’ve had pita pizzas, oven smores, fettucini with broccoli rabe and chicken, and an excellent spinach and cheese quiche. If you’re interested in any of the recipes, send me an email and I will forward them to you. We have been eating well and healthily all week... except for the candy.

We had a good Halloween and enjoyed handing out candy to the kids that came by. Boone even had a t-shirt to wear, and he didn’t give me any grief about putting it on either.

I was very excited for November 1st to come. I love the holidays, and one of the things that I love about them is the music. If it were up to me, I would play Christmas music all year long. Alas, there is another person that has a say in it. Andy and I have an agreement that I can start playing jazzy Christmas music in October. On November 1st, I get to pull out all of my cool piano arrangements of Christmas music. (I don’t get to play simple carols until Thanksgiving.) Finally, November is here and now it’s Christmas music all of the time!

I also have made good progress on “The Kite Runner” this week. I have been very impressed by this novel - the story-lines, the quality of story telling, and the character depth are better than many books I have recently read. I’m about half-way through and will probably finish it within the next week.

Andy was fighting a cold this week, so he ended up staying home from work for a couple of days. The only plus side to this is that he got to spend a lot of quality time with Boone. At this point, I am confident in saying that Andy is officially a “dog person.” It is pretty cute how they play together.

I got a really cool picture of Boone today just after the picture above. Boone was running around in the leaves under the maple tree, and he stopped for a moment to look at us. It is in his album, but just in case you don’t make it there I have also pasted it below.