Making A Home

Thanks!

I found a cute brown jacket this Winter for $10.  It was the first jacket I'd owned in a few years.  They are expensive and I am pretty picky.  I had one in college that I loved and I haven't found it's equal that I can afford.  But when I saw this one, I liked it... when I saw the price, I loved it.

A couple of months ago I went out to find some new tennis shoes (mine were falling apart.)  I came across a very cute pair... also brown, with lime green accents.  Adorable!  (And only $15!)  I began praying (literally... as silly as that may sound), that they would have them in my size, and they did! 

This week at Grump Therapy (ahem... adoptive parent's support group), Renee handed me a pair of gloves.  Sort of a "good mail minus the packaging".  Brown!  With green stripes!  They match perfectly with my shoes and jacket and I LOVE them!  So thoughtful.

It's the little things in life that make me giddy.

- An unexpected mocha from my husband right when I need it.

- Custom cut paper from the print shop that comes back all shrink wrapped and cute.  (Ask Quinn... I was giddy.)

- And the perfect pair of gloves from a great friend - a sure sign someone was thinking of me.

And the winner...

Of the slightly used, but well loved cookbook is...

TRINA!

E-mail me and we'll figure out the best way to get that to you.  :)

I thought about making it a soup contest - having my family actually VOTE on all the soup recipes and give the cookbook to the winner, but then we would have had to eat nothing but soup for a week to try them all.  And besides, Amy Curtis had a good point... maybe the WORST cook needs it more than the best cook!  So, random drawing it was.  (I repeat, it was random!  I'm not implying Trina is the worst cook in the bunch!)  Thank you all for the soup recipes - we are looking forward to trying them!

Valentine's Day

I got up this morning intending to make a special Valentine's Day breakfast for my kids.  Biscuits and Chocolate is an old family recipe from Missouri on my dad's side.  I planned to make the biscuits heart-shaped.  But when I got to the cupboard... we were low on baking cocoa.  Oh well, I can roll with it.  We'll just switch that to Biscuits and Sausage Gravy - it's higher in protien anyway.  Hmm... low on flour, too.  Did I mention we were out of eggs?  That limits our options.  So we ended up with this:

Good old Cheerios, sprinkled with a bit of red sugar to make it festive.  But, to sweeten the deal... hot chocolate with heart-shaped marshmallows.  (Isn't a sugar coma supposed to be part of the holiday?)

Dinner was our traditional heart-shaped pizza.

And for dessert, as we speak, the kids are in bed and Brian is making me Chocolate Lava Cakes.  Mmm...

We spent the afternoon with fellow homeschoolers, at a Valentine's party.  Besides snacks and fun games, the kids made 60 valentines (ok... the kids made 35... the moms pitched in to hike the number to 67) to take to a nursing home and brighten the day of the residents. 

 

I loved this idea.  For some reason I'm not all that comfortable around the elderly, and I don't want my kids to have that same difficulty.  I want them to be at ease around all types of people, and to be able have the joy of helping others in ways like this.  So, many thanks to Carolynn, for her great idea and fun party!

One fun surprise this evening when I got the mail... a Christmas card...

From our kids' oldest sister!  We had one meeting with her guardian when we were first adopting Sam, and discussed visitation and keeping in touch, but we never heard back from them after that.  We've continued to send Christmas cards to keep her updated on Sam and Hallie's lives and hoping that when she was old enough, she would respond.  It was so great to hear from her and hopefully open up that line of communication.  I can't believe she's 12 now!  We are looking forward to having the kids write back to her very soon.

 

Your Lucky Day

Whatcha' Doin' Tonight?  Brian won 2 tickets to tonights Sonics game against the Lakers - good seats, it appears.  Section 118, Row 17, Seats 7&8.  The game starts at 7, doors open at 6 at Key Arena. 

Unfortunately, the friend he was going to the game with couldn't get out of work... which is why it's your (or your husband's) lucky day!  Brian would take Sam, but we're having a bit of car trouble and don't want to risk it in Seattle.

So who wants these 2 tickets?  We're waiting for a call back from someone at Brian's work, but the first person to contact us who can definitely go... they are all yours!  Leave a comment - I'll keep checking!

Guess what I did yesterday?

I braved the wind and weather to go to the post office.  :) 

Can anyone say GOOD MAIL?!?!? 

I do need to go again, though... a dear Good Mail member in Canada STILL hasn't gotten her package that I put together more than a month ago, because I only seem to go to the post office after hours, and you can't use the automatic postage machine for international mail.  Sorry Lisa!  I'll get it there soon, I promise!

More stuff happened yesterday, too... but I haven't taken the photos yet.  So that will have to wait.  :)

Second Generation Good Mail

Check this out...   

  Even the kids are getting in on Good Mail!  Last week (or so) my friend Renee's kids sent Good Mail to my kids, which of course, they LOVED.   

There was even a pillowcase that Renee's oldest, Adalia sewed (and did a beautiful job!) - Hallie absolutely cherishes it. 

Sam and Hallie can't wait to send some Good Mail back... they just have to decide which one of the kids to send to first!!

Incoming

Just a Good Mail update. 

We have 5 ladies signed up on our local group so far (always room for more!  Just send me an e-mail and I'll let you know the info we need.  My apologies if anyone previously sent an e-mail and I missed it.  I'm changing my e-mail address linked from this blog.)  In the last couple of weeks I've gotten some fun incoming good mail from some people in the larger group.  The photo is a basket of what I've received, some as simple as a note with some "polka dot" stickers, others as fancy as a cute journal, and Hello Kitty  Pez dispenser.  One nice lady sent me (among other things) a small notepad for writing things down - with sections labeled "Blog worthy", "Quotes to remember", "Movies I want to see", "Books I want to read", etc.  Very clever.  All fun stuff.  I am working on getting together a few items to send out some good mail myself, hopefully later this week.  It's coming, ladies!  Watch your mailboxes! 

Good Mail

I sent my first "Good Mail" tonight.

What is Good Mail, you ask?  Good Mail groups are popping up all over.  It seems to have started with Annie.  (Click to read more.)  The premise is simple: We all love to get something good in the mailbox.  (Something besides bills and credit card offers.)  Good mail groups offer a place to exchange addresses and send each other good mail.  You have fun sending cards or notes or fun packages, and you have pleasure of recieving them from others in your mail box, too!

Duplicates of this little package are going out to four people from the Good Mail list.  (Have you used the automated postal machine at the post office yet?  It's pretty cool!)  I also decorated the envelopes after taking this photo.

Want to join in?  Email Annie to join the big group.  E-mail me if you're interested in joining a new one - I'd like to start one locally (friends and family... and their friends and family.)  In the meantime, feel free to send me some good mail.  I'd be happy to send some your way, too.  :)