Where's IKE?

Ike is Two and other updates..

2010-12-21T17:42:00.001-08:00

Holly Crazy Fall. It was nuts. New job. Ike has a new school. Luke's mom in and out of the hospital with multiple surgeries, Sculley in kidney failure, my step dad had surgery, my brother is now engaged...but the thing that I think about the most, the thing I haven't yet talked about, is the maggots.

In September, during the crazy mix of hospital visits, we had maggots in our house-in our kitchen. I had already called in sick this day because I had cried myself into a migraine. My step mom was already coming over to sit with Sculley, because we thought it was "the end". Luke and Ike are getting ready to leave for school and work, respectively, when Ike says in perfect clarity, "what is that?". What is what? How did he say that so clearly? (then it was a big deal-now 2 1/2 months latter he is throwing out super clear words and sentences like crazy, but then I was stopped in my pajamas.)

It was a maggot. Then another maggot. Then we started looking around the kitchen, living room, laundry room, dining room and entry way....they were EVERYWHERE!!! In the mists of all the crazy, we had apparently NOT taken the trash out in a timely fashion. It was very hot outside as well, and I'm told, perfect breeding weather for FLIES.

I HATE dirtiness. Hate it. I have been accused of being messy, but dirty I am not. I clean and clean and hire people to clean. Not to say that my house is "clean", because it is normally not. We have mail on the counter, coats and bags on the table, there is usually dog hair on the floor, but I vacuum and mop and dust like a maniac. The mess is something different.

Maggots were the last-last straw. I started crying and could not come up with any plan on remediating the problem. Luke and Ike had to leave and I was in disrepair. I could not think of anything to make my life better at that point. Enter my step mom, who did not listen to my message or read my text not to come. She totally calmed me down and got me back where I needed to be. (wanted to give her some props, but back to the maggots.)

So I started to vacuum them up with my incredible dyson and they kept coming. I vacuumed the same area for what seemed to be an hour. They kept coming out from the woodwork-seriously. And I should have thought about that, because (you guessed it) five days latter was FLIES.

We had 25+ flies in our house EVERY NIGHT. Every night for a month. Luke was KILLING and average of 12-20 a day. And we were NOT killing them ALL every night. Seriously it was horrible. We felt like the Feed the Children commercials. We couldn't eat here, we could cook. We had to cover our cups we were drinking out of because flies would land on them. And the little bastards got brave and had NO problem landing on us. After all we were their home.

It may sound petty, but it was one of the worst experiences. Mainly because of my unique ability to block out really bad experiences, as if they never occurred, and I have been fortunate enough not to have many bad experiences. But I'll tell you the flies and maggots were not funny at all until now.

In other news... Things really seem to be looking up around here. Ike is, of course, doing well. He is the smartest in his class and most likely the smartest two-year old and the most handsome in the entire world.
(Please ignore the bad picture of me). Ike has taken to mimicking us. For example, the other night he decided to read us his book, get off the chair, walk to the edge of his crib, sing us the song we sing to him while rocking back and forth like we do, and then proceeded to his prayer. Apparently he is tired of his routine. The best part is he was laughing the entire time.
I will try to post more often. It is hard now because the State of Oklahoma doesn't allow Blogger on their computers. I am fighting this now. I totally believe the Oklahoma tax payers would love me to check my blogs on my work computer instead of having to read them on the small screen on my iphone. I believe anyone would agree with me. What do they want me to do all day? Work?

Happy Ikeaversary!

2010-11-21T18:00:00.000-08:00

It's crazy being a parent in general. One crazy thing is that everything in the beginning is counted in months. "My son is __ months old", "he has been home for ____ months". Finally we are ending counting our lives in months.

Ike has officially been home for an entire year. This is crazy. A year ago we were sleep deprived and freaking out. A year ago Ike was sucking a bottle. A year ago I had no idea how to interact with a child much less what to do with him. Yet somehow we made it and Ike seems extremely well adjusted by anyone's standards.

And I've turned into such a mom. For example, all I ever want to do is sleep in. Before Ike (since I worked for myself) I normally never got out of bed before 8 and anytime before 10 I felt like I was off to a good start. I spend most of my mornings dreaming of sleeping till 8 or 9. It NEVER happens. Even if Ike is spending the night with my mom, we still have Sculley and Mulder who are used to eating at a certain time. Plus Luke is a HUGE morning person. This morning, the clock hit 7am. The dogs were still asleep, Ike was still asleep, Luke was still asleep. By 7:30, Luke is out of bed, but everyone else is still asleep. So, by this time I am freaking out about Ike. By 8 I'm so worried it is crazy. All I can think about is that Ike was so tired the day before, he MUST be sick. I'm worried he is in there with a fever, he's thrown up, he's deathly ill, something is definitely wrong. I go in there, of course he wakes up, and he is perfectly fine and his super happy self.

I also worry constantly that Ike will be disappointed latter in life that I have not made him a baby book or why I haven't written him a letter since he came home. That he will wonder why there are not that many non blurry pictures of his face or something else no boy ever cares about.

For the biggest Ikeaversary, some of my family (20 of us, sorry to the one's who didn't come. It grew exponentially and the place wasn't that big) went to a restaurant. We were there for about two hours and past Ike's strict bedtime. Ike went around to everyone at the table and said "bye, bye Papa", "bye, bye____" until he reached the point of his beginning, looked at me and said "momma, I go now". So we left.

I hope to post more pictures soon. A brief update... Sculley is still stable. Luke's mom is out of the hospital and seems to be getting better. We are still hoping for her to make a full recovery.

If you are in the process...

2010-11-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

And you want to raise money, Check this out!

3 full days left to SIGN UP!! + A Give Away!

You have exactly one day left to sign up, but if you do Ordinary Hero will give you a portion of her t-shirt sales! Thats a great deal! I have several of these t-shirts and just bought 4 more for gifts and for Ike. I love them. I actually am wearing one right now. Their logo is "change the world for one". I think this is perfect.

This blog is amazing and inspiring. I would highly recommend it.

Where Have I Been???

2010-11-07T11:26:00.001-08:00

First of all we have have a crazy couple of months. Luke's mom has been in the hospital twice, including currently. She has has 3 emergency surgeries. We think she is finally doing better. My step-dad also had surgery on his hand and wrist.

Sculley was also in the hospital for a week. She was sick as a puppy and it ruined one kidney and made the other one operate a a faction of what it should. She has been on special food and filtered water for the last 6 years. But she has been fine. This summer we noticed her really slowing down. We thought it might be the heat. Or maybe she was depressed because I started working outside of the house and were gone more often. Then, one day, she started throwing up, and I mean everything. I took her to our vet, who has saved her life more than once. She didn't call me all day and then when I got there she wanted to see me. I knew something was horribly wrong. Sculley is in severe kidney failure. I had to rush her to the emergency vet, where she was able to get 24 hour care. They had her on a IV for 7 days trying to flush out her kidney. Then they told me there was nothing else they could do and we should take her home.

We are devastated. She looked fine, but we could tell how sick she was and it was obvious that the vets there had no hope. Her 'numbers' were higher (and still are) than most dogs who die of kidney failure.

Our vet recommend actions (we had already read about this on the internet as well). We now give her a few over the counter medicines everyday and (here's the kicker) we have to give her 500ml of IV fluid with a 10 gauge needle subcutaneously every other day. She looks like a camel for a few minutes and then it absorbs into her body. I can't bring myself to to it, so Luke has too. This is not a permanent fix, but she seems to be doing okay. It has been over a month. She eats, she takes short walks, she plays a bit. We will see.

I have cried more times at my new office then I have cried in years combined. I'm sure they think I am a basket case.

Other than all of that, things are going well. I am in the mists of planning Ike's birthday. And in a week or so we will have officially been parents for one whole year. Which means we did it! Whew! (hope you like the pictures. He will never look at me when I am trying to take one :)

2010-11-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

Right Place Right Time?

2010-09-24T07:32:00.001-07:00

People always say "right place, right time". But to believe that you would also have to believe the opposite, "wrong place, wrong time". This doesn't really fit in to my "make the most of it" attitude.

I am one of those people that believe there is a 'reason for everything' and 'God has a plan'. I met Luke at a college retreat I did not want to go to, and I almost didn't go to that college and neither did he-I believe God gave me Luke. Ike's birth mother made the heart wrenching decision to put him in an orphanage at the exact same time that lead up to us being ready to adopt a baby. God gave us Ike, even though the events that lead up to this were tragic.

Luke's biological father was killed in a helicopter accident in the 1980's in Oklahoma. Instead of his mom moving back to the east coast, which was her plan, she stayed here, married, and he adopted Luke and years latter we met. If Luke's dad wouldn't have tragically died, we most likely would not have met, gotten married and adopted Ike.

These examples (except the college one) are of something beautiful coming out of something absolutely horrible. I can see how good things happen out of extremely bad circumstances, sometimes...

This is easy to believe when you live an easy life. I was born in Oklahoma to a loving family who provided me with the opportunity to be anything I wanted. The woman I sponsor through Women for Women was born in Rwanda during the same time frame. She has probably witnessed, and been involved in, more horrific tragic events than I could ever even imagine. We are subject to the time and circumstances of our birth. And what about the 147 million children in the world who need a home? How do these ideals fit into their life? How can I come up with these rainbow outcomes when so many people are suffering and there are so many horrible tragedies in the word?

Someone said to me recently, "into every life, a little rain must fall". I'm not sure what this even means. I'm from Oklahoma. In Oklahoma, rain is a miracle. Rain brings life, rain grows crops, rain bring down the dust. But rain also takes the sunshine away.

Early this week a bright ray of sunshine was taken away from our world. My friend was ruthlessly murdered in ____ where he was living. He was from El Paso and he worked in that city. But he was living in ______ because his wife just got her citizenship. They were planing on moving to the other side of the border soon. He was surrounded and shot in front of his wife and two children over what, we can only imagine, a mistaken identity. He was a clear a bright ray of sunshine. He was probably the nicest, most caring and friendly person I have ever met. It would be impossible for anyone to count the number of friends he had made in his short life. I would guess that number to be all the people whom he was ever introduced.

Of course we are all in shock and in a state of extreme sadness.

I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with him one last time this summer. I had actually not seen him since college, 10 years ago. I asked him, "is it really as bad as they say in _____?", his reply, "yes".

In my naive, sheltered mind, things like this happen to other people. Gang violence happens to people who are affiliated with a gang or CEO's of large companies that get kidnapped. Not beautiful, working family men.

Where is the sliver lining in this nightmare of a story? How can anything good ever come out of this? Will his children know how much he loved them? Will his wife be okay?

I can only pray that in some twisted mixed up way, something good will grow after this storm.

To New Mexico and Back Again.

2010-09-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have been reading my little uneventful, non-flowing blog for long enough to know that we have been driving to New Mexico every year to buy green chiles, art and whatever else. This year, Luke decided about a month before we were going to leave that driving 10 hours with a 1.5 year old is not a good idea if you have other options. SO we went first class instead.

Luke planned out the entire vacation by himself! Not that he is incapable, it's just that I have always planned out our trips. He did a fantastic job. Luke is not as cheap as I am so we did everything in style. And I liked it!

We usually drive, because we buy things, like art and green chiles, that cannot be flown back. This year my friend got us green chiles and drove them back for us and we shipped our new art. Anyway, we flew and flew first class-which rocks. I have enough miles on some airlines that I get bumped up but they don't go to NM. Fortunately, United is super cheap to by an upgrade, especially when you count up the dollars you save by not having to pay to check bags. (remember when you could check bags for free and airline people were nice and respectful? Remember when it wasn't a nightmare to fly and you didn't have to take off most of your clothes to get through security?)

When I book our travel I get the cheapest car possible-Luke got us an Acadia (Cassie, I remember that you wanted one of these and I pooed it. Now I want one) it was really nice! Luke also booked us a great house at Casa Gallina. It was fabulous! We got there and Richard (the owner) had left out a bunch of snacks, mint water and a bottle of wine! Awesome! Everything was beautiful. His house, the chickens, the food, his garden, his lot, his furnishings. Amazing. I thought we should just rent a one bed or studio. Luke said two bedrooms. Good choice. Ike just goes to bed so early it would be hard to have a nice time. Not that we are staying up late. I went to bed at 8;45 last night??

This year, we went to the Taos Music Festival-which Ike of course loved, The bernillo wine festival-Ike Loved and I'm not sure what else we did? We did go tour the Earth Ship, which is a home built out of only recycled and sustainable material that generates all of its own electricity.We also did some mandatory site seeing of things we like to go back too and things we have never made a point to see.
We spent a lot of time relaxing and eating fresh eggs and fruit from Richards garden.
And mainly spent time with each other. Ike is a great traveler. He was even having some stomach issues and still had a great time. He flies like no one business and takes long car trips like a champ. He had no issue sleeping in new places and meeting new people (of course we new this from all the other places he has been made to visit)
This was our first alone family vacation. In January, we went skiing with friends. He had only been home a little over a month and was a poor decision on our part. Ike had altitude sickness, he also got sick and didn't care for the day care that we put him in while we skied. I know-bad call. But it all worked out okay.

In February, he went to Florida to see his great aunt and uncle and grandpa and Edith. He loved it and did great.
In March he went on a business trip to Washington, D.C. He did enjoy his nations capital. Then we waited a whole 6 months before we did anything else, mainly due to my work schedule and Luke's travel schedule. And we really wanted to go out of the country but Ike didn't have a passport till recently and I had accidently let mine expire.

In other news, Ike received his Certificate of Citizenship this week, which is what any citizen born out of the country must get in order to prove citizenship. Now the only thing I have left is to get his SS card in his new name and there is nothing else. wew!

Hope all of my miscellaneous readers are doing well.

Morning time

2010-08-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

So far the new morning routine has been going okay. I have gotten to work 'on time' everyday, which is a miracle for me-with or without Ike. Today, I had all the odds stacked against me. 1) Ike was awake when I woke up at 5:50 and he was crying. Normally, I just leave him in his crib till I am done getting ready and he just sits there and talks to his toys and sings. Today he sounded like he was in pain. Against my better judgment I went in there to see if I could get him to go back to sleep. No deal. He was awake and ready to party. So I ended up getting ready with Ike. Bad plan normally as he steals my make-up and seems to run into me at the most inopportune times (i.e. straightener in hand, putting on mascara, touching my eye, etc..).

2) Sculley somehow broke one of her nails below the quick. They haven't been able to go on walks lately because of the oven like heat we are having so their nails are way longer than normal. I had to cut off her nail, as it was hanging by the top layer, with kitchen scissors. I was super scared. Sculley is very gentle, but sometime she will snap if she is in pain, just like anyone. And she is a big powerful dog.

3) Ike had 2 poops this morning. Both at times when I was in the middle of something.

4) I found Ike with a tube of toothpaste in his mouth, which is apparently toxic.

All of these things happened before 7 am. And guess what? None of it ended up being bad! Ike didn't scream and try and tackle me when I was trying to get ready. Sculley didn't snap at me and then run away from me and hide. I didn't run late because of the extra poops. And I didn't have to poison control over the toothpaste incident.

The only other morning that was equally as interesting was the one where I found Ike with 1) matches, 2) scissors, 3) trying to get to a butcher knife, and 4) with a pill off the floor.

They should say you "practice mothering" like you practice law or medicine. because every day is so different.

Coach IKE

2010-08-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

My brother is a high school football coach and last year he gave us this shirt and hat during our baby shower. I remember thinking that it was very thoughtful and sweet, but Ike wouldn't be able to wear this for 2 years.

Well, now he can and he attended his first football experience today with a scrimmage. Last year we thought Ike could just go to all the games with us. This was before I learned that children go to bed so incredibly early. This scrimmage is probably the only football he will see this year. Good thing he has an aunt that doesn't like football and is going to stay with him while we attend high school games every Friday.

Just a small update

2010-08-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Maybe some some of you have been wondering how we have been with the new changes in school and work. I started thinking about this and, somewhat sadly, this is where all my family gets their information about us.

Last week we all started new things. Luke was out of town for work. He was a key note speaker on sustainable housing (first for a conference that big and first for green housing). He was on NPR in Kansas City (first) on the Walt Bodien show. He was amazing!

Ike started his new school. I guess I never realized how frustrated he was at his old school. He used to come home and be very grumpy. Now he comes home and is a complete hoot. AND he stopped crying when I drop him off in the morning, although I do think that is because he gets second breakfast when he gets there. Second because he also eats breakfast before we leave too. At school, he gets his choice of two cereals. He has also made friends and Luke says that he has a 'dirt gang'. Apparently, Ike and a few other children hang out in the little house on the play ground and eat dirt and, from what I hear, they are a pretty exclusive group. His words have improved too in the last couple weeks. Yesterday, he started singing 'Old MacDonald', like a whole verse. And tonight we started signing some of it and then having him finish, super cute. His favorite song these days is Dynamite by Taio Cruz. He likes to sing that on the way to school in the morning and also when he wakes up in his crib.

I started a new 'career' (I guess) as a property attorney for the OK Military Department. So far so good. They are still working on my clearance so I haven't gotten computer access yet, but I have been able to review some files and get to know a few people. Everyone seems nice and I think I will like the job. The best part to me is that I get an hour a day to work out! What!!! That was a deal to me. I have been working out, starting this week, with a group doing Insanity which is produced by Beach Body and is basically a crazy hard core cardio class.

Anyway, things are going pretty good over here. I even have a little girl in our neighborhood coming over to take care of Sculley and Mulder once a day. Aunt Lizzie has also been helping.

Amb over and out.

Another August, another job

2010-08-03T08:17:00.000-07:00

(this picture and other similar ones were taken by Jamie at Dimples & Dirt Photography)

It seems that every year around this time I am either offered a job or, as in last year, laid off a job. I have had a lot of jobs. Most have been contract jobs, which come and go. And then there's my real estate company that I started in response to not being able to get a job I thought would work. My diplomas are still in their original tubes because I have not found anywhere I thought I would be for long enough to frame them.

This year I have been offered a position that I hope will work. Actually, I am very hopefully. And most of that has to do with me. It's hard because I always have real estate waiting for me when things get hard and I have a tendency to return at any moment and I never let that part go. But now, with Ike, I am unable and unwilling to work the hours I did previously. And I know I need to make a decision- which has to be a regular job.

Not that this is just any regular job. I feel pretty lucky to have it. Its a state job so I get regular hours without them being billable. I get PAID vacation-which is completely opposite of what I have now. Now, I go on vacation; someone I have been working with for months decides they need a house today; I either 1) spend all the vacation working, or 2) the client decides that it doesn't matter that we have been friends since first grade and that I have been helping them for months and buy the house through someone else. Since international cell service I have been able to do number 1 instead of the latter. But it still sucks. I worked in Korea while picking up Ike, I had to work THE day after Ike came home. I lost 3 deals while on our honeymoon because people didn't 'want to bother' me. Do you know what 'bother's me' losing money. :) I even worked the day we had Ike's finalization while I had our family over at my house. I have worked Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, on dates with my husband, birthday parties... I think the only person who notices is Luke. And poor Luke. I have called him numerous times freaking out because I am only one person and called on him to do something NOW even while he is at work or anywhere. He told me that he and Ike are tired of working for Corbin Realty.

So out of somewhat no where I was asked for my resume, had an interview and am starting a new (hopefully) career next week as a property management attorney, or something (the title was not made clear to me). I am very torn. It is hard to start something new. In my head I am this fabulous stay at home mom who miraculously makes money. But I know this isn't the case. I'm on the verge of freak out most times. I'm either so busy that I'm handing off Ike to whoever can watch him and haven't had a day off in 45 or I'm so slow that I'm worried about paying my office rent and getting the next deal. And it is really tough having your quarter depend on one or two clients who are on the fence.

We were planning on having Ike go to a full time school starting next week anyway (as opposed to the three day program he is in now) so I could hopefully get most of my work done during the day. But now he is going to school full time and I'll be working full time. Luke keeps reminding me that I will be working LESS hours with LESS stress, which is true, but it is hard.

I'm worried about so many things I haven't had to think about: "what are Sculley and Mulder going to do?", "Will they be able to stay in all day?", "What if they are outside and a storm comes (they have the garage when they are outside).", "What if it is icy and I have to drive the mini?","What if I can't do it?".

I know all of these questions are dumb and I'm worrying for nothing. And I know that I am way too worried about my dogs. But I'm worried about Ike too. He already cries every single time I drop him off. Only for 30 seconds, but it still breaks my heart. Now I'm going to have to rush out the door with him in a tornado every morning.

I do know that everyone else does this. I do know that this is going to be the best for my family and I do think I will be happier. I'm just nervous and scared. There's only one thing that will make me feel better...shopping. I think I'll do that now.

"Are you going to 'get' another one" and other crazy comments.

2010-07-27T20:26:00.000-07:00

I just got done reading another blog I follow where she had what I call an "ignorant encounter". Luke and I thought we could write down just some of the random things people have said to us about adoption or Ike's ethnicity.

There is this grandmother of a girl in Ike's current class that drives me up the wall. So much so that I loath seeing her and will sometimes get there early or late as too not run into her. I see her multiple times a week and every time she comments about Ike being different or Korea/Koreans. Keep in mind that these questions are all on different occasions and stand alone.

* "Where did you get him?" This just isn't her, but people all over. Oh, you know, he was on the top shelf at walmart. Not on sale or anything but we thought we would splurge.

* "isn't it great that 'they' are 'all' Christians over there now?" I wasn't aware of this...

* "did you use an agency"

* Today: "I just think all Asian babies are beautiful. Not like American babies. Not that I consider him Asian. I consider him to be 'white'"

Moving on to others:

* "how much did he cost?"

* "Are you getting a little "Chinese'?" My husband, "no, I'm getting a whole Korean".

* "why is there an Asian on your desk". My husband, "what?"

* "Did you adopt from overseas because it is cheaper?" No. "Oh, then it must be because the paperwork is as extensive since the standard of parenting isn't as high".

* "Does he squat like that because he is Asian?" Luke, "Look, Ike, it's a fat ass". (I know that is bad, but sometimes your fed up)

* "Has he shown a tendency towards math? You know, because he's Asian?"

* Maybe my favorite. "Does he speak Korean?" No he is a baby and has lived here for almost half of his life and all that he can remember. "Do you speak Korean".

* "Your wife must look really Asian, because he doesn't look white at all." Luke, "Thank you".

* Old guy at the mall. "Is his dad Japanese?" No. "He looks Chinese" ???? me: "he was born in Korea". Old guy: "so his dad is Chinese"

There are PLENTY more. The funny thing is that we live in the middle of a huge Asian district in a city of tons of Asians and some of these things have been said by... Asians. Most of the people aren't trying to be hurtful or rude. But my God I don't know if we just look friendly or what :).

The woman at Ike's school is the most annoying because for six times a week I am asked questions about Ike being Korean or adoption. Every time. Three days a week, pick up and drop off, six times a week. Once she said that Korea was a beautiful place... she really liked Beijing. I don't even correct her.

We are super psyched because Ike is starting a new school in two weeks and there is a boy named Santiago in there. We are hoping he will take off the pressure. :)

GLobal Orphan Project

2010-07-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

Drawn From the Water

2010-07-15T18:36:00.000-07:00

We bought this t-shirt for Luke from Drawn From the Water, an organization that saves African children deemed "mingi" by their tribe, and it is awesome!. For those of you who know nothing about mingi, it could be as simple as top teeth coming in first or twins, other other things the trip decides as a bad omen. I was super pumped to hear about this organization from my internet friend Jenny (who can post her site here if she wants). Luke and I heard about this practice several years ago and have been concerned about it ever since. Please read about their mission and buy a shirt or help out if you can.

One step forward..

2010-07-14T08:57:00.000-07:00

For those of your that were super impressed that Ike pooped in the toilet, he turned around and peed on me yesterday when I was changing his diaper. So progress is met with set backs?

Craziness of adoption paperwork

2010-07-14T07:08:00.000-07:00

Now that all of Ike's paper work is completed, I have time to reflect and share the redundancy and ridiculousness of the forms we had to fill out for the US government. As an attorney, I do know that for every line in a form there is a reason behind it. But is there really a reason (for example on the N600 form for Certificate of Citizenship) to fill out "your father's current wife. is this person your mother?" answer "yes" then complete information about current wife/mother. Next section "fill out information about your mother", even if your father's current wife is you mother! The you have to do the same thing with your father. So there are at least two full pages on this form that could be done away with if your parents are married.

This form was incredibly challenging to fill out. Without the help of our adoption agency who gave a us a cheat sheet with answers to all the questions or at least telling us what they were asking, I would have had an extremely hard time filling this out. And if you mess up it is doubtful that some nice lady from Immigration would call and tell you. I'm assuming they just throw your file in the bottom of the stack.

Because our wonderful and incredibly helpful adoption agency, Dillon International, puts together these cheat sheets for their clients, this form was manageable. But if I'm having trouble understanding questions on a form I have to think that everyone else is too? Plus English is my first (and only) language. I can't imagine how extremely daunting this would be for someone who is not used to filling out forms and has English as a second language.

Also, because it is me I didn't just take Dillon's word on what to fill out but looked into it myself. There are at least 2 different forms the US website on adopted children tell you to fill out. The other one was, I believe, made null because of the Child Citizen Act 2000, which grants citizenship to foreign born children who are adopted by US citizens at the time the adoption is final or if the child comes into the US on a different kind of Visa then the one Ike came in on.

The form that we were required to fill out cost $420! That's not even to mention the other $100's of dollars that I've already given the US government for his immigration.

Since I've already touched on the Child Citizen Act 2000, this Act (which I have read several times) references paragraphs within the Act that, to my knowledge, do not exist. Maybe it was scanned into the internet wrong, but I could not find them. I printed the Act off to send in for his Certificate of Citizenship and for his passport just incase I get someone who has never done a foreign born adopted child. I feel I must do research for these people because it has been my experience that they will not take any extra time to learn something new about their job.

That was really harsh. I think the reason I feel that way is that when we were in the application process for this adoption, INS got our names wrong. Luke's last name is hyphenated and I have my maiden name. The approved form we got back in the mail that allowed us to adopt an 'unknown child' had a made up name on it that somewhat resembled ours. I tried to call, which told me to email. The email bounced back saying I needed to call. I finally talked to a person who said I needed to email. He kept actually reading a written statement to me that said the same thing no matter what I asked. So, I did what anyone would do and drove down to the INS office. They tried not to let me in because I didn't have an appointment. How was I supposed to make an appointment if I can't get through because I don't have a "number" because it is an unknown child and they don't give you a case number until you know the child you are trying to adopt. Finally, I realized that other people were getting in using their bar number. So I told them I was an attorney, here is my bar number, and I got in!!! What do other people do? They just let me in because I was an attorney and attorney's don't need appointments because they go in to represent their clients. I will say that woman that helped me straighten out the name thing was extremely nice.

Also the Lady that helped my get Ike's Certificate of Foreign birth actually called me and told me it went through. She was great.

So as a whole, the PEOPLE have been extremely helpful. The agencies have not been and have backwards rules and procedures.

Lets talk about getting Ike's social security number. I'm very lucky because I was able to get an actual appointment at our office instead of sitting there for hours. I went to get his SSN before he was legally adopted so we did not have an Adoption Decree. The poor girl that was helping me could not get the system to understand why he had no parent on his birth certificate. I was like, "well, he is an orphan. Which means he has no parents until we adopt him. Then we will be his parents." They kept saying, "yes, but someone had to give birth to him." How is is so hard to understand that if his biological mother was on the birth certificate he probably would not have been in the predicament that led to him actually being adopted. And now, even through he is legally a US citizen, deemed so by the ambiguous Child Citizen Act 2000, I still can't get the Social Security Administration to change his number to reflect a citizen instead of a permanent resident.

Probably all of this is a lot more frustrating to me than other people who may not care. It just makes me mad that this child is my child. My child as if I've given birth to him according to the courts, yet he is still going to forever be a "naturalized citizen" and not a 'birth' citizen. He will have to 'prove' his citizenship with this Certificate because he is foreign born (this may be the case with foreign born nationals too?) He will always be, under current law, an immigrant even though both his parents are US citizens-born and raised.

If you read my previous cut and paste post you would have read that there is on legislation that will make adopted children equal to biological children under law. This is on the back burner for most politicians because of other things they deem more serious and may be and probably are. To my knowledge, the only ones who care are the ones that have an adopted child in their family. I guess to to other people its not that big of a deal.

Also, I want to add that I would do this all over again. And that the paperwork is not bad when you have an agency to help you. I make things way more difficult because I research things to death and expect things from the US agencies immediately instead of waiting, which is, I'm sure, why I have so many issues :)

Equality for Adoptive Children

2010-07-13T21:20:00.000-07:00

About EACH

EACH, Equality for Adopted Children, advocates on behalf of children adopted into American families and their adoptive families. EACH seeks to work with Congress, the White House, and government agencies to promote adoption policies and legislative changes that will ensure that adopted children of American families have the very same rights and opportunities granted to children born into American families.

Mission of EACH: To achieve equal treatment between adopted and biological children of American citizens under federal and state laws.

E – Every child is created equal, but not every child is treated equally under the law.

A – An adopted child is entitled to the same rights, duties and responsibilities as a biological child.

C – Children who were adopted should have access to the same and equal opportunities as biological children.

H - Help make this a reality through your active participation in EACH and the legislative process!

Statement of Principles:

All children deserve a permanent family and home.
Adopted children are to be treated as if the “natural issue” of their adoptive parents. They are due the same rights, duties and responsibilities as a biological child.
Both domestic and foreign-born adopted children of American citizens deserve equal treatment under state and federal laws.
Neither federal nor state laws should show preference to biological children over adopted children.
Federal law should not treat foreign adopted children of American citizens as immigrants but rather as dependent children of American parents.
Families formed or enlarged by adoption deserve the same treatment under state and federal law as families with biological children.
The adoption process must ensure that safeguards remain in place to protect birth families, orphans, homeless children and adoptive families from fraud and abuse.
The adoption process should be as simple and streamlined as possible in order that more children who need families can be placed in a permanent family and home.

EACH will strive to be a voice for adopted children and their families. While other organizations represent adoption agencies, adoption attorneys, child welfare advocates and combinations of these groups, there is not an advocacy group located in Washington, D.C. with the sole purpose of representing the interests of adopted children and their families. EACH will fill this void and be the “voice of adopted children and their families” before Congress and the Executive Branch.

Dimples & Dirt

2010-07-12T19:54:00.001-07:00

We finally got our family pictures taken. It took forever because I wanted to take them outside and I wanted our dogs to be in them. I had trouble finding someone that wanted to work with two dogs and a baby and then when I found Jamie with Dimples & Dirt I needed to wait till the weather worked for us. She also did the cloth diaper photo shoot that Ike was a little model.

Anyway, here are a few of her shots from this last weekend. I haven't seen all of them; these are just a 'sneak peak'. But I'm super happy with them!

I remembered on thing...

2010-07-12T19:41:00.000-07:00

One thing I have been meaning to blog about since January is My Custom Story. When Ike first came home, one of the many things I was obsessed with was finding the perfect custom board book. I make books from all of our trips through iphoto or publisher, sometimes kodak. But I wanted a board book for Ike that was simple and told about how he came to be our baby. Ours is 12 pages or something.

Anyway, I am very very happy with how it came out and I remember the price to be reasonable. I think it would be good for any child.

(Not sure why this picture is a mirror image or why I always look crazy with photo booth?)

2010-07-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging in my head all day. I do this a lot. I think about what I will write and then I don't write or I forget, like I'm doing tonight. I especially do this when I want to write a letter to Ike. I don't think I have written him a letter for a year. That means that since he has been home I have not written about how much I love him and how much he means to Luke and me.

I feel like I'm forgetting a lot of things lately, or in the the last year. I used to have this super great memory where nothing would get passed me. I took no notes and would forget nothing. I mean nothing. Not a word anyone said. Ever since law school I forget so many things. I even forget places that I have actually been and am constantly asking Luke about things, simple things. "Luke have we been to.....(like a state or something huge)". Luke was talking about a time I was playing basketball with some kids at the Y and I "stuffed" this kid and his friends made fun of him every time they saw me. I have absolutely no recollection of this or who knows how many other things.

So I'm worried I'm going to forget the first day Ike walked. We were iced in. Luke was home from work because his office was closed due to ice, but he was on a conference call in the back room. All the sudden Ike started running. Not walking but running everywhere and then falling down on his face. He was laughing and screaming so loud and I knew that he should be quiet, but I was so excited for him. Or how last Friday we were getting ready to go on our morning walk and Ike ran up to me and said "poop". I asked him if he needed to poop and if he wanted to go in the potty and he ran to the bathroom and pooped in the toilet! Just like that! Of course, now he wants to go to the potty all the time for no reason. But it was one of the best days ever.

I don't want to forget how Ike works in the garden or sings the "abc's" or counts everything. How the other day, in the rain, we were dumping the water out of our rain barrels into buckets and dumping that water into watering pails to water my garden that doesn't get rain. Ike was so excited to help and was in charge of filling up the buckets with the hose from the rain barrels. He was so wet and laughing the entire time. Or earlier that weekend it started raining as soon as we got to the zoo. All the other parents and children where hiding under the awning waiting out the rain. Ike ran straight into the rain and started singing and dancing in the rain, running and sliding into puddles.

I don't want to forget the way Luke looks at Ike or how Ike looks at me. and how he runs up to me saying, "mom, momma, mom, mom, momma.." is this sad little voice when he want a snack with his lip stuck out and hands out reached. I really just want to remember everything and every moment. Even the one's where I am trying to hold him in the store and he is pushing me away with his super baby strength screaming like I'm killing him and leaning towards the ground and I'm trying to not drop him to the effect of throwing out my back. Where everyone is staring at us like I've lost my mind or I am the worst mom ever. :)

I hate to be so incredibly cheesy all the time but apparently this is the only thing I can write about right now.

It's Official!

2010-06-30T19:05:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we finalized Ike's adoption! Yah. Not that really anything changes, but I have been having anxiety over it this whole time. I can't stand things hanging over my head. Now I just have to wait on citizenship, but I can send that in as soon as his birth certificate gets here (hopefully tomorrow). One reason I have been so concerned about this is that I did the proceeding myself. See, I'm one of those attorney's that never really goes to court. I own a real estate company and, basically, sell houses for a living. Not that I don't do attorney things, because I do. One, I write contracts all the time :) and I do a little bit of Pro Bono things, which lead me to court. But mainly, I do a lot of transactional work on a case by case basis.
Anyway, I was scared because I had never done an adoption before, and it required a lot of research. My good friend K gave me her documents for her baby's adoption, and that helped so much, but I had the pretty real fear that I was going to be in court in front of a judge I did not know and he would say, "Ms. Corbin, you omitted a necessary document. Adoption denied until further documentation". My whole family would be there looking at me and thinking I was ridiculous and I should have footed the bill for a 'real lawyer'.
But none of that happened. In fact, the Judge commented on my thoroughness and said he would like to see me do other cases in his court. So how 'bout that adoption friends?? I'm officially for hire!

Sunday, before our court date, Ike got sick. We went to the zoo. Saw my friends from law school that have a baby around Ike's age. Ike is tackling her for her juice box, sharing her drink. This always makes me nervous because, as I'm sure you know, kids are like little disease carriers. And what makes my concern worse is that I'm more concerned about Luke and I getting sick!!! What kind of mom does that make me? It's horrible. All I can think of is us being sick and not being able to take care of him or work. Plus, it's not like I have sick days. When one has their own business, one works when one has work and it does not matter if one is on their death bed. I digressed, but really, we all know that your baby sneezes and you will be in bed for days.
So immediately after leaving the zoo, Ike passes out in his car seat, then throws up the sausage kolache he had for breakfast. Then passes back out. He took a small nap, then went out to lunch with Luke. During the extremely short drive home, Ike puked sandwich all over himself and Luke's new car. Apparently, it was horrible.

So, then, my new court room fear became...I'm holding Ike doing my attorney thing in front of the Judge, "Your honor, my husband and I would like to adopt this child and change his name too.." PUKE all over me and then I start gagging.
This didn't happen either. In fact it went really really well!!! Ike was terrific. I think he felt very special sitting with all the other attorney's. Adoption's are held in a closed courtroom in OK so we went last in the docket. I had the whole family waiting outside the courtroom and I was going in and out waiting for everyone else to get done. Ike had to go with me and did not want to leave the courtroom. He was hanging on the Judge's every word.

Please, Lord, let him be a dentist or in veterinary medicine, a banker or an engineer. Please don't let him go to law school:) I'm kidding.

After our day in court, we had some family over for the sandwiches Luke ordered the day before, before the puke. I made a little cake. If you notice in the picture above, Ike licked the cake before we where able to serve it up.

In other news, My brother watched Ike this morning during my weekly struggle to secure child care on the days he does not have school (he will be attending a full time facility in the fall). I guess Ike feel asleep during the drive to the mall so my brother texted his girlfriend with something similar too, 'Ike's asleep in my truck and I'm at the mall. What do I do". She called immediately, thinking he was in the mall and Ike was asleep in the car-alone. :)

18 months and still a growin'.

2010-06-20T19:12:00.001-07:00

So here we are. Ike is 18 months old. 30+lbs and 33+". He talks all the time and is go go go. Where he go this is so weird?:)

Summer is here and we have been really busy. I have been working a lot. Not that I'm actually that busy, but every deal I do seems to have a lot more steps lately. Plus, the great OK hail storm, the "500 year flood" and the exhausting abnormal heat are not helping my real estate market, anyway.

Ike and I have a pass to everything and have really been working on our garden, which has seen better days. The hail knocked off 90% of our beloved peaches and killed our new tulip tree. The roofers knocked down a bunch of my flowers and all the lilies that the hail didn't kill. I have pine beetles in my 100 foot loblollies that are killing them at a rapid speed (a problem that has plagued the whole city) and I, of course, have squash bugs making sure I will not have any zucchini without dousing them in poison.
I do realize that no one out the cares about my garden besides me and Luke and maybe our neighbors who get all the stuff we can't eat. But it is really depressing me. That and the fact I can't run because it is too hot by the time Ike goes to school and doesn't cool down till after it is way dark and close to my bed time. I'm going to have to break down and get another gym membership.

The only thing that might make me feel better is going to the water park with Ike or the zoo and all the other things that are now acceptable to do during the day because I'm a mom.

I really enjoy being Ike's mom. I think I have said before that I wouldn't necessarily say that a have a blanket love of being a mom. Ike is cool and funny and great to be around. He hugs at the exact moment you need it, but throws a fit at the same moment you wish he wouldn't :).
He laughs at all my jokes and his are pretty funny too. He is fun loving and a little social butterfly, preferring older ladies of around 3-6 years of age. A woman at the zoo last week said Ike likes cougars when he was following around her daughter, offering her whole wheat gold fish (the kind no kid really likes but makes me feel better for giving him crackers-although I seem to have no trouble giving him pizza and french fries).

The picture with me and Ike on top of the metal gorilla was an extremely bad idea. Ike is not a climber. I am. I placed him on top of this dangerous piece of yard art and started to climb up there, holding him, with wet, sweaty flip flops. The whole time I'm thinking what a horrible idea this is and that my mother is going to watch her child kill her grandchild. Everything worked out, but I'm most likely not doing it again.

In the bigger of news....I have Ike's final adoption scheduled for the end of this month. whoot whoot! I'm doing it myself and thought it would be a great idea to take the entire family (minus Sculley and Mulder) to go file his petition. I most likely will not file any thing with Ike again. He was running around making friends with people and making me nervous. I don't get to court much any more and for some reason it scares me. Anyway, it's filed and court date is set.

I hope everyone is surviving this crazy weather and having a great summer.!

Ike preforming at the zoo

2010-06-20T19:12:00.000-07:00

More about IKE?

2010-05-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

I know I'm like a broken record... IKE, IKE, IKE... I don't know why his name is spelled in all caps except he is a lot to be around. Everywhere we go there is someone that says, "there's Ike". I don't know these people, or I've met them once at the store or something. He is very memorable.

All these pictures where taken on Saturday during their photo shoot by me. I don't know how, or I've never learned to adjust the aperture and shutter speed on my canon rebel so if any one knows please comment me, so my pictures are not near as good as Jamie with Dimples and Dirt Photography. But anyway here they are.

Ike was definitely not on his best exuberant behavior that morning. He was kinda shy-which is really really weird. I think it was because some of the other kids (not pictured) were crying, so C and Ike did not preform as expected. Although some of C's pictures were Parent magazine cover worthy.

Anyway, Ike has really come into his own man, again, recently. Tuesday why visiting the school where my mom works, Ike looked at me and said, "I gotta go". So we left. He kept saying this in a really funny tone until we got out the door, "I gotta go, I gotta go...". Then the next day, while visiting her afternoon class he was walking up the stairs, I offered to help and he said, "just let me do it". Hahahahaha. The funniest thing about all his words is that he talks really fast like me.

He asked my friend, "what do you want?" for dinner tonight at a restaurant, and today at lunch I was talking to my buddy about how he screams when I try and work and I said, 'don't you?', so he screamed! then laughed! He named about 25% of his 100 first word book on Tuesday. He is just really shocking. If he had more than 6 teeth I might agree with his pediatrician that he is older than 17 months, plus his BFF C has has greater verbal ability than he does and she is the same age.

Also tonight for dinner at Sean Cummings (a local Irish Pub) he wanted to pick out his own outfit. We had just came back from a walk in the rain so he had to change from his Futbol World Cup Mexico shirt to recycle sweat shorts and a national zoo shirt with none other than his cowboy boots and half a stethoscope (which he wear constantly around the house).

He was happy, so were we. I mean, really, I wear work out clothes half my life and try to pull it off as an actual outfit. Too bad I'm also sweaty. Plus the other half the time I'm dress like a 14 years old in shorts and a tank top, unless I'm working-then a suit.

IKE has his own style and now he's rockin' a tail.

Ike and Cecily

2010-05-26T11:23:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday Ike and Cecily did a photo shoot for a local cloth diaper store. Check out their picture :)

http://www.dimplesanddirt.com/blog/?p=701

Ike needs mulder to scratch his head

2010-05-20T19:37:00.000-07:00

The Great Hail Storm of 2010

2010-05-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ikeversary

2010-05-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Well it's been 6 months! We have gone from not knowing what to do with him to feeling lost when he isn't with us. Everyone loves to say "oh, kids change your life" like it's something bad or some sort of hassle, but for us, we have continued to do everything we did before it's just that we have this little mega man baby entertaining everyone and we are home by 7 to put him in bed :)

We are looking forward to making this whole gig final; we finally had out last homestudy on Tuesday. I want to go ahead and get the final report so I can drive down to the court house and file the adoption decree. I haven't even sent out adoption announcements yet because I felt like I was losing my mind when Ike first came home with Thanksgiving, his birthday and then Christmas so I thought I would wait till the thing was final.

It's so weird to think about when he first came home and was so scared and we were so scared! How we all cried when we realized he was staying :) We had no idea what to do with him
or how to entertain him. A few times we forgot to feed him in the beginning.

It was way harder for us to go from 'Luke and Amber' to 'Luke, Amber and Ike' than we thought it was going to be. We had been just the two of us for so long that adding the extra dynamic was difficult. We were used to working constantly and eating out late at night. Plus, when Ike first came home it was soo cold and we were unable to walk the dogs like normal or even spend time outside and with the ice we had here we couldn't even leave the house. There were many times we prayed for 7:30 so he would go to sleep.

Then there was the early sleeping issues when he would scream for hours a night. A horrible death curling scream that we could not get away from no matter where we were in the house. Thankfully, he was so happy the rest of the time. It seemed like those nights lasted for ever, although I really only think it was a week.. Then, one night, he reached for his crib just like the book said, and went right to sleep.

And for the most part he has done that ever since.

Ike amazes us every single day. He is a great communicator and has so many words and if he doesn't know that word he will ask. His little brain works so hard we can see it. He has figured out every child proof thing we have.

We are so proud of him. He is such a sweet little man and is so caring and considerate. He wants to share his food or drink with everyone in the room. He will acknowledge everyone in a social setting by walking up to them and touching or saying something. He has made many friends and other parents at his school say their little ones talk about Ike all night (some of the kids are 2 in his class). He loves to dance and will 'find the beat' when ever asked. He also like to 'be the wind'. He has an absolute love of animals and is really gentle with them.

Luke has said that we are never going to win the lottery because we have Ike. I hope everyone feels so lucky to have their babies and that everyone is in complete awe of them. Not to say that he doesn't try and get to me every once and a while or that he is this jovial all the time. Ike is happy unless he's not and then he's really not happy.

Yesterday we had a window person here quoting a new window for the one that broke in the hail storm so Ike decided he wanted to be a puppy. Which meant to him that he would lay on his belly and lick the floors, stand in the water bowl and then lick the water like a puppy. I was trying to ignore him because sometime I feel like I am more annoying saying "Ike! NO!" then Ike is screaming or trying to take down the blinds. But the licking of the dog water after he was standing in it with his shoes really got my attention. :)

So, back to the crazy hail storm. We were all at the lake, about 1.5 miles from our house. We walk there most nights. We saw the storm coming but were not overly concerned till someone told us we needed to get to our car because there was a tornado coming. Well we walk there so we had no car. We started walking faster, but Sculley will not be rushed. I went ahead with the stroller, running. But I had already ran that day and was having a hard time. We went across the back field but couldn't run because it was incredibly muddy. Anyway, we
made it home about 5 minutes before the storm hit. We have never seen hail that big. We had hail the size of tennis balls. It was hitting our house and windows like we were in a batting cage. Luke shut the blinds so if the windows shattered into the house it wouldn't be as bad. We were really lucky in that we just have one broken window and only the outside pane shattered. We will need a new roof-just like everyone in our neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods and Luke might have his car totaled, but hopefully not.

(We went to the ostrich egg breakfast at the zoo and we had to purchase an actual ostrich egg to add to our collection of odd things. )

IKE events

2010-05-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures for you, but I do have really funny things to write about. We will start with today and go backwards :).

1. Today we went to a Korea Children's Day celebration that Ike's adoption agency put on. All the kids were running around like crazy, playing. This one little boy, Ike's age, takes Ike's balloon. Ike, without a second thought, punched this little boy in the eye! With dead aim too! Smack! "What did we say", you are probably thinking? "This would be a great time for a life lesson"? Nope! Luke and I started laughing really hard. Way too hard. It was so bad we could even say, "no, don't hit!" or anything else a responsible parent would say. Great. We are really good examples, especially since we laughed all the way back from Tulsa about it! And had Ike in the back seat saying "PAP!". Needless to say, Ike got his ballon back, and the dad took that boy away from us.

2. Last night Luke was changing Ike's poop diaper. Luke has never gotten used to this gross task and coughed, "Dear lord, thank you for not letting me throw up". Ike looks at him and says perfectly, "your welcomed"! He has only said that one other time and it was weeks ago and not that clearly. So funny!

3. Yesterday morning I was trying to get Ike out the door for school. I'm holding him and he is hugging me, patting my shoulder in a loving way. Then I feel wetness on my shoulder and realize he is patting and smearing some sort of liquid into shirt. This liquid is splashing up in my hair and I know its bad. Then the smell of throw up hit me. Yuck. I about puked too. We both had to change shirts.

4. The other week I was picking Ike up form school. I saw another mom looking distressed at the half door talking to Ike's teacher and say, "are you sure my daughter is okay in this class?". I was kinda worried and then I heard Ike's teacher say, "well, we have this one boy who isn't too steady on his feet". I immediately knew she was speaking of Ike. Turns out this little girl is very small, like 12 lbs smaller than Ike on a good day and they are bff. Ike tried to run up and hug her and instead he tripped on something a fell on top of her. She is still in the class, so I guess she is okay?

5. One more thing... Ike, as I mentioned in an early post, has an odd thing with apples. He loves apples. Loves pictures of apples, books with apples in them, and apples. He has to have an apple every day. And the apple must be peeled or he will have to give you all the skin from the apple. It takes him, with his 6 teeth, about 45-70 minutes to eat an apple. He has to eat the whole thing. On occasion, Sculley or Mulder will think he is giving them the apple. He is not. He wants them to taste it. He will then become extremely upset about them eating his apple in one bite. It took him most of the way to Tulsa to eat an apple today and we have started saving 'apple time' to our walks so he will have something to do. I started buying smaller apples so it wouldn't take him so long to eat one. I guess it's better than candy?

Next Saturday, Ike is in his first ever photo shoot. He has been 'hired' to be a model for a cloth diaper store in OKC. He and two other babies are getting their picture taken to hang above the cash register. He is very excited about his debut.

I'm going to try and be better and stay on top of funny things that Ike does. Really, they happen so often that we forget. And I'll get some pictures up soon. He was sick this week and last weekend he stayed with 'Gigi' so no picture were really taken. Well, except these pictures that we took of Ike playing inside the dog food bag? They're pretty funny, but it's not the kind of thing one posts before one's post-placement home-study is complete. Just kidding, I just haven't put them on the computer and my new iphone won't load to my iphoto. Not sure what's going on there, but I'll fix it and show ya the good stuff soon.

5 Months at Home

2010-04-23T07:35:00.000-07:00

If you have been reading my little blog for any time or know me at all, you know that I know nothing about children. That being said, I think Ike is one of the smartest most outgoing babies I have ever seen. I might be some what biased here, but I have been around a lot of kids lately-more than ever in my life, for sure.

I know I have written about how social and gregarious Ike is before, but he continues to amaze us. He walks up to babies and adults a like and offers them whatever he is eating or asks for food :). He blows kisses to the ladies, he shakes hands with men and hugs babies. Yesterday at the Arts Festival he said "bye" to everyone after meeting them by showing everyone his balloon. He also has this weird thing with apples???

He has started talking in two word sentences; mainly, "Ike go", "dog drink", etc.. He also will say things like, "cold water", "red apple"...
He likes to walk around in these cowboy boots, which are way to big, and talk on the phone to no one or who ever. Then he will try and email or text someone and play games., sometimes deleting my apps.

He has been a lot of fun lately, especially since we can kinda understand him. And when I say he is saying all these words, I mean that Luke and I know what he is saying. :) But I'll take it! We are always in awe of how resilient and strong Ike is and how he just turns 'on' for a crowd.

I don't know if he will always be like this and I would like for him to have at least a little bit of 'stranger danger' (although he does seem to have a sense of of people), but I keep having people tell me that he is "destined for great things" and is "going to be famous". I know he will do great things, he already does. But, man, the attention this kid brings is unreal. We can't go anywhere with everyone talking to him, and he LOVES it. "what's his name", "how old is he", "is he always this happy", "does he always have this much to say", "I can tell he is a 'man's man'" (that's my favorite-what does that mean?) and of course lots of comments on how handsome he is.

The only time we get more attention is when we are with C (picture below). They are very cute together and are BFF. She is beautiful and talks a ton too. The two of them together will spell trouble before we know it, although they are both very sweet natured children.

It is probably easy to tell that Ike is an only child because Luke and I think everything he does is so great. And now that he has stopped falling as much I have stopped having heart attacks daily.

Sorry I don't have anything funny to say, or riveting for that matter. It has been pretty boring around here. I guess that is good?

Well Hello!

2010-04-08T07:28:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow. I went from posting all the time, to once a week, to once a month? How did that happen? I know how. And I'm sure all of you do too. Adding a a man-baby to a million other full time gigs is a lot.

A Man-Baby he is too! He is huge and keeps growing. He is well over 33"and 30 lbs and he is not stopping (which I guess is good). I had to go buy all new clothes in 2T and he is just today 16 months. The 2T clothes look hilarious on him because he is not quite tall enough for them, so all of his shorts look like capri pants, but the smaller size makes him look like a sausage. I feel like he is going to grow up and ask me why none of his clothes ever fit him.

Easter was very fun. I was able to go to his school and see him hunt eggs with his class. I saw some of the 'bad' traits he has picked up in two of the other boys. These two little boogers were pushing the other kids out of the way and not sharing. Then yesterday Ike pushed another kid out of the way at gymboree! Ike is normally such a nice and kind person, but I think the 'way of the boy' is coming.

He is still very sweet, but his ornery side is coming through. Very recently he has decided that he has a way and that is that. However, at least for the near future, I am still bigger and stronger and this makes me win. :)

He he also started pointing to things and telling me what they are or what sound the animal makes; and yesterday I asked him where the apple was and he pointed to it and said "red". The apple was, in fact, a red one. He's a genius.

Anyway, for Easter we got Ike the ABC Elmo. I think I have mentioned before how much I loves the "ABC's". And he loves Elmo.

This little doll could drive a person crazy. Elmo does not always sign the "abc's" all the way through, but instead allows the child to become a sort of DJ by mixing up the "abc's". So, instead it is "abcdabcabcdefabcaaaaabcdefabaaa". And Ike thinks this is amazing. I, however, do not and would love to hear the whole alphabet in it's entirety. :)

Ike continues to be a dancing machine and loves to "find the beat" by getting really low and swinging his hands, kinda like a blues singer. I really need to get this on video. It is really funny. He is actually a really good dancer! Way better than his little momma, but we all know that is not hard-I have NO rhythm, but enjoy dancing with him just the same.

Things in mommy land are going pretty well. But just like everyone says, as soon as I got used to the way things were he switched it up on me. I'm really enjoying my new challenge as a mom.

I am the kinda mom that I that I used to judge. I never thought I would let my baby do some of the things I do. I will basically let him eat anything if it will make him happy or my life easier. We give him Sprite at happy hour, he eats candy, he drinks some of my coffee, I let him cry in the stroller or grocery cart simply because he is too small to walk and too big to carry and push something, I let him run all over public places as long as he is not in any danger. Basically, I am much more laid back than I thought I would be.

And I can feel the judgement coming from other mom's when Ike and I are sharing french fries and ketchup and a Coke or when were eating breakfast and he has his own donuts and is taking sips of my coffee. I used to be one of these people, but now I say "who cares". How can I tell this little pumpkin he can't have something when I'm eating it? Plus they don't knows that he normally has the best diet of mainly fruits and vegetables.

Probably the biggest thing I have learned from being a mom is that you can't judge a persons' parenting by one setting or a child by one tantrum. However, the mom with the Dr. Pepper in a bottle will still get the eye of disapproval from me... :)

We are still here

2010-03-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

Ike has been home for almost four months. In four months we have had Thanksgiving, celebrated his first birthday, Christmas, New Years, Valentines Day; traveled to Breckenridge, CO., The Villages, FL, and Washington, D.C.; Ike has had a few colds, the stomach flu, a double ear and sinus infection; Luke and I have had two severe sinus infections, a stomach bug, a stomach flu which made us think we should put a sign on the door to stop mail and any visitors and colds upon colds. Needless to say we have been plenty busy.

I think I already posted about us going skiing with our buddies. Two weeks later we went to Florida to see Luke's 93 year old grandpa, girlfriend, aunt and uncle in this crazy retirement village called The Villages. The Villages house up to a 100, 000 people. That's right. It started in the 1950's and has continues to expand. They have several golf courses, squares, restaurants and a million things to do. Everything looks similar, so similar that I became lost when running. I actually ran in a circle and then a down and back thinking that I just ran a down and back. I realized later that I had ran past the street I had started on and just not realized it.

I was great for Ike to be able to spend time with his only family that lives outside of Oklahoma. It was also nice to get out of the horrid winter we have been having here. Normally by this time in March I have planted a garden and straightened up my front yard. This year I have barely been able to run because of the crazy wind and horrible cold.

Two weeks after Florida (I'm sorry the pictures are backwards) Ike and I accompanied Luke on a work trip to D.C. We were very happy to go. I love D.C. Love it! I was able to attend Georgetown one summer in college and work in Dupont Circle. I also have friends from school who live there now.

I had a great time. We went to a few of my favorite places in the world, starting with the National Zoo. Ike loves animals and he really loved this zoo because he was able to be so close to the animals and touch a few.

The next day we went to the Natural History Museum. Ike thought it was super cool that he was able to see all the different stuffed animals and he especially loved all the people he was able to meet.

I'm not sure if there is a more social person in the entire world. It takes Luke and a at least 30 minutes longer to do anything because we have to factor in the time Ike will take to stop and talk to people. Now that he is walking well there is no stopping his ability to talk to everyone in the entire whatever: mall, restaurant, airport, grocery store...

He has become quite famous here in our little area. He introduces himself to seriously everyone. So, everywhere we go people say "hey Ike!". Also weird is that people randomly take his picture on an almost daily basis. It is not like we live in a small town. We live right in the middle of OKC, a city of a million people.

We are very interested to see if Ike keeps his gregariousness. We hope so. Luke and I are very social people, but we have nothing on Ike's ability to make friends and entertain. His first sentence was "Ike go". And Go he does go go go go go...

Sorry it has been so long since I have post. Between being constantly sick and condensing my normal 50 hour work week in to roughly 20-30 and our crazy travel I have felt like I have had no time. I feel like as soon as I am able to catch up on things I will figure out how to resume my normal life. Right now I am making a conscious effort to be present with Ike when I am with him instead of shorting us both by trying to do my normal million things at once.

Anyway, happy almost Spring everyone!!!

Hello: A Quick Update to get Back on Track

2010-02-07T08:59:00.000-08:00

Hello all. I'm not sure why I haven't been blogging lately. Possibly it is because I haven't been taking that many pictures due to Ike's new walking habit. He randomly stepped up his walking one of the 'ice' days. However, Ike doesn't like to walk-he prefers to run. This is very troublesome because his skill level is not quite there yet. He really needs a helmet or we need to get a different, more baby proof, house. It has been very difficult for me to take any pictures because I am constantly walking around the house making a halo around Ike.

We took him skiing a very weeks ago with some of our friends. Ike, of course, did not ski but went to a day care facility. He had a little trouble with the altitude and then caught a little cold.

Our friends found this great house to rent. It was beautiful and right in the town of Breckenridge. There were two other babies there, Ike's friend Q who is Ike's age and then a five month old. It was crazy with two sets of stairs and babies everywhere. :)

Ike is starting to do well with school and started a Kindermusik class with some of his friends.

Anyway, Ike is doing well. I am kinda sick again with the crazy super baby germs. I am so tired of
being sick. I have been sick 3 times in 3 months. I go years without getting sick at all. I haven't been on antibiotics in over ten years, but now I am a sickly person. That plus the crappy northern like weather we have been having has stopped me from any type of out door activity. I think a lot of Oklahoma City is mildly depressed with all this sleet, ice and snow. I miss my 50 degrees all winter. Now they are saying we are going to get another winter storm tomorrow or tonight. What?? This is ridiculous! The first snow over Christmas was super cool. It never snows here. But now I just want to curl up a cry. Not to mention that school has been out a million days lately. Ike is supposed to go to school 3 days a week and he only went 6 times in January! Two of the days we were skiing, but other than that they were snow days. This makes it very hard for me to work or get anything done. This last week his school was canceled and I was trying to work. Every time I got on the phone with a client Ike would start running around screaming, ripping the paper out of the printer or try and preform some sort of acrobatic maneuver. Then the dogs would start barking and chase after him. I am feeling very professional... Not that I can blame any of them. The dogs normally get a family 2 mile walk everyday, but it has been so cold and gross out we have been cutting it short if we even take them. Plus with the wind it is hard to take Ike with us, which means one of us has to stay here with Ike. The dogs are going stir crazy and even Ike looked at me the other day and said "go". I told him we couldn't go any where because the roads were iced over and he said "GO".

We will all be very happy when warmer weather comes and we can go outside. I would really like to run without stepping in slush or coughing uncontrollably. We are very spoiled in OKC with mild winters. I am reminded of this in this winter. YUCK!

If you don't like the weather...

2010-01-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day by anyone's standards here in OKC. We went to the zoo, we walked the dogs to the dog wash, I worked in my garden. Nice.

But you would never guess that it would be so nice this week if you were here last week. Last week, Lake Hefner was all but completely frozen over. We were throwing bricks on the lake and it still was not breaking. In OKC we never have cold weather long enough to freeze a lake. CRAZY! It was super cool!

Ike went our friends' 1st birthday this weekend. They are so cute. As we all know, Ike loves to eat and a birthday party is the best place for cake. Also, Ike loves the triplets especially Isabelle although Ike played with Sophia more Saturday? Ummm? This could be a scandal?

Ike started school two weeks ago. He is doing great. He is still crying when I drop him off, but I think he is just doing it so they will love on him. He loves the love. He talks non-stop. He has tons of words. He is getting much better at expressing himself to tell us what he needs and it seems that he almost fully understands us. He is really incredible. I can tell you right now that it would take me at least 6 months before I would remotely be able to understand Korean. He still isn't much into walking. He can walk. He just doesn't really want too. He thinks its real funny to walk and then plank backwards. Then he gets upset that no one was there to catch him. I really can not wait for him to walk and keep his balance. Seriously!!

He has a check up appointment next week. I am very curious to see how much he has grown. I'm guessing 3/4 inch and 3-4 lbs in two months!

So, sorry this is such a hodge podge post. I have had a lot of work lately which has interfered with my blogging. And I haven't been able to get on a roll with this post because my pictures loaded oddly and people keep calling me and wanting me to work. Off I go to try and get some things done and hopefully go running and enjoy this beautiful day!

Swiffer IKE

2010-01-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

We have been cooped up in the house for quite some time. I'm not used to being inside so long. I would like to go running or go to the park and walk my dogs (which we normally do EVERY single night), but as an Okie, I am not used to this negative wind chill we have and definitely cannot take the little man out in it. So in the house.

Tuesday, Ike had his very first day of school. He seemed to have liked it, but the teachers looked very 'Iked' when I picked him up. They asked m

e if I 'just held him all the time'. "Yes", I answered. "Oh, that would have been helpful to know", they answered. Well, I don't know anything about

children. I thought

for sure they would know better than me. It probably doesn't help that we use BabyG diapers, which I think are much easier to use than the regular non-biodegrading kind. I don't think they were trying to be mean, anyway. Ike just likes to be held so he can see what we are seeing. He has to ask what everyth

ing is and why. We just carry him around and he points to things and says "Wha?", he has't put the 't' on 'what' yet.

Today was going to be his second day, but the schools are closed due to the horrible cold weather. So today we cleaned.

I would like to share two of the several things people told me would happen with a baby.

1) "The Super Bug": I had the worst cold ever the week of Christmas with chills and a fever. I haven't had a fever in over ten years. But that is nothing compared to the stomach issue I had yesterday. I woke up feeling really hot. Weird because I am very cold natured. Then it went way down hill. Then I would feel okay. We even went to Gymboree (This was before I realized I was actually sick), every time I would, umm 'get sick', I would start to feel better and by the time it was really bad I knew I could put Ike to sleep and then Luke would be home from work.

2) "The Poop Tornado": Monday I was doing yoga during Ike's nap. I saw that he had woken from the monitor, but he was singing and playing with his sound machine, so I decided to finish. I went in there to discover he had a major poop and then had been jumping up and down, rolling around and bouncing everywhere! (fortunately not with his hands.) This was a nightmare for me. Of course our washing machine had broken the night before. Sculley and Mulder were trying to 'help' me. Ike is screaming. I'm trying to clean him up, because as you are probably aware, poop was all over him. I had to give him his first mid-day bath. He was in a cloth diaper-which went promptly in the trash. After the bath, Ike seemed traumatized, I was trying to strip his bed and the dogs were trying to help. Here I am trying to get a square mattress out of a crib that basically sits on the floor, trying to untie the crazy hard knots I stick on his bumper, and trying not to touch poop all while fending off a baby crawling up my leg and screaming with dogs trying to see what I am doing and licking Ike to try and get him to stop screaming. NIGHTMARE. Our whole house smelled like poop.

Today was a better day :)

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T09:16:00.000-08:00

(This is the most requested picture I have taken of Ike. I have probably 2000+ pictures of him, a lot are really good, and this is the one everyone wants? What does that say about my friends?)

Hey everyone! Happy New Year! I have been absent from my blogging for quite some time. We all got kinda sick; Ike had a runny noise, Luke had a pretty bad cold, and I thought I might die for about two days. Then there was Christmas and the great Oklahoma Blizzard of 2009 (when I had no internet). It was only the 6 time in 106 years that we have had a white Christmas! It was very exciting for us. We had so much snow!
Of course Ike loved it because he loves everything. Luke made a big footprint in the snow and stuck Ike in it. He thought it was so funny. He was laughing and eating snow saying his famous "yummmmm".
Ike had a nice time at all 4 of his Christmas' too. I think he thinks he gets presents everyday. He came home, he got presents. Then was his birthday, he got presents. Then Christmas, he got more presents. Plus, we have friends coming over almost everyday to bring him something. He is getting so good at opening things. Every time anyone walks in the door he assumes they will have something for him-they usually do.
Ike had developed a wonderful love of animals, especially dogs. He loves Sculley and Mulder. When he wakes up from a nap or in the morning he looks for them right away and wants some kisses. He has started to not grab their face and paws as much. This is the main thing we have been working on with him. Sculley has even started letting him play with her toys and not being completely annoyed.
For most of the day, Ike crawls and walks around the house with his remote in his hand. He loves that thing. He has hundred toys and he plays with the remote.
Ike is saying new words everyday. Yesterday he said "milk", "cookie", "cracker" and something else? (I probably should be writing all this down but I'm not.) The amazing thing, to me, was that he crawled into the kitchen, sat by the pantry, and said "cracker". He is very verbal. He also like to play "thank you" where we give him something, he says something that remotely resembles "thank you" and then he gives it back to us. This game goes on for a long time.

I hope everyone has had a great holiday season and has a happy new year!

A Whole Month

2009-12-19T18:45:00.001-08:00

Whew! I can't believe it has been a month. It feels like forever and no time at all. We have finally figured out what to do with him all day and seem to be settling into the dreaded 'schedule'. I alway used to laugh at that when new parents would talk about their 'schedule'. For us it wasn't so much for Ike, but really for us to figure out what to do with him all day. He is a constant source of energy and entertainment. He spends about 14 hours a day sleeping, 3 hours eating and the rest playing. Yes, you read right, 3 hours eating. I know I have posted before how much he eats, but it is incredible. The weirdest thing is that he is thinning out. I think he must have grown a an inch and gained several pounds in this month. When will he stop growing?
He is also getting 3 top teeth at the same time. We had a few rough days with the teething, but all in all he has been fine. I can't imagine how bad teething must hurt. Yuck! His gums are all swollen. Other things he has been up to include practicing his steps, although he is not really that into walking yet; he says numerous words; he practices his animal sounds; and reads books.
Also, eating... Here he is eating his favorite snack, a fudge covered Ritz cracker. (Thank you to my uncle Mike for introducing us to these wonderful creations.) He normally will eat super fast, saying "yummm", "good" and clap. With the fudge covered Ritz he will savor it. It takes about 10 minutes for him to finish one cookie. He is the cleanest eater too, but with the Ritz all cleanliness habits are gone. Sculley and Mulder help with his cleanliness by licking his hands.
Ike loves to be thrown around. We call it 'Ike torture'. This includes blowing on his belly, putting his little feet on the cold window (which he thinks is so funny) and playing 'drop the baby' which is what is going on above. He is seriously the happiest little baby I have ever been around. He just laughs and laughs and gives sweet little kisses and hugs. :)
Sculley has started having a rough time. I think it is because she is having too many Ike treats. Ike likes to feed her and then she will clean up after he eats. She only has one kidney and it doesn't function at 100%. We have started really watching what she is snacking on. The hardest thing for her is that we won't let her play with Ike, or Ike play with her. He is too young to really play with her so we will only let him 'pet her'. He says "just pet her" all the time, because that is what we say ALL THE TIME. "Don't grab her paw, just pet her", "don't stick your hand in her ear, just pet her", etc... Anyway, I think Sculley thinks she is in trouble all the time because the 'no's' around her fly like crazy. Luke said tonight that they should have a cooking show where the chef is chasing a toddler and 2 big dogs around while trying to make a great dinner.
Anyway, we are doing great. I feel like things are starting to fall into order around here. Ike seems to be able to understand us a little better lately. Every day I can see his little mind working and he says or understands tons more.

So to re-cap: It has been one month. Ike has turned one. We had a huge birthday party for him. He is growing like a weed. He is eating us out of house and home. He has started hugging us good bye. We love him.

holy day Ike man!

2009-12-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

Let me start by saying Ike can work crowd! He loves a good party. Today we celebrated his first birthday with most of our friends and family. He had the best time. I have no idea who I invited because I sent out the invitations the first week we were home with Ike. I still have no idea how many people were here. I do know that Luke was concerned about opening all the presents and I want to stress I told everyone we needed nothing :). How can a two hour baby birthday be the longest two hours ever? We love a party, but this one wore me out. Not Ike. He had a great time.
We had a bunch of kids here around one year. Ike loves his friends. There are really no situations we have put Ike in that he had a hard time with. He crawls up to everyone one and tries to talk to them.
Ike devoured his birthday cake. My mom and barry made his cake, a refrigerator cake. This is what I always have for my birthday. It has jello in laced in the cake with dream whip and puddling icing. Yum!!
Ike met his good friend Q today for the first time. They really hit it off. We are going skiing next year with them so it's great they like each other so much.
We also spent an unordinary amount of time at Petsmart today waiting to get Ike, Sculley and Mulder's picture taken with Santa. Sculley has always been scared of Santa. Weird because Sculley has never stepped down from a challenge. Normally Mulder is the one who is afraid??

Thank you to everyone who came. We had a great time!

Happy Birthday Ike!

2009-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday IKE!

It's been OVER two weeks?

2009-12-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

Whew! It has somewhat flown by, and somewhat taken a whole life time from us! Being sudden parents to a 12 month old after living alone together for 10 years is taking some adjusting time. :) We feel like Ike adjusted to us on the plane home and we are slowly trying to carve out how to be parents. But we are doing great! AND I don't think Ike knows the difference.

We have had some busy days! Mainly because we still haven't committed to crib naps and are still driving around twice a day for an hour a piece. It is crazy how now my day consists of 'well, we have to go to Target and then we are going to lunch" when before I would have said I had nothing to do and had 10 more errands.
This week, we went to Luke's office; we went to Ike's first party for a friend's first birthday; we have had visitors; we have had multiple play dates, been to a few different malls; Gymboree; saw Santa; worked on walking; and practiced our words and signs. One reason we are so booked is Luke and I have no idea what to do with him all day. We are always out and about, so Ike is too. He loves it!
His favorite thing is still eating. I think it might be partially because he is teething and mostly because he is a BIG boy. We have recently been around a lot of kids and none have been bigger than Ike. When he especially likes a food he will do a little jig in his chair and say "yummmm!" There are really no foods he doesn't like. He didn't like the yogurt sauce a Zorbas, but I think it might have been a fluke.

A lot of you (and I mean a lot. I had no idea how MANY people read this) have been asking about his sleep. It was rough going for a week or so. He really only was having trouble going to sleep. Not staying asleep. Recently, he has been doing a lot better. We haven't tried the crib naps, because last weekend was horrible and to stay sane Luke and I decided to just drive. We might just wait till he starts school in January for them to get him in the crib. Or maybe we will get up enough courage to try again next week. Who knows.. I do know that all of us in this house have had to be a bit flexible and work as a team.

It took Mulder about 1 day to figure out that if he woke up Ike in the morning we would all get up and he would be fed. It took Sculley less time to teach Ike to feed her from his chair. And Ike has figured out that if we are distracted by the furry kids he can bee line for their water bowl. Luke and I are just trying to stay at the top of the chain of command. Wish us luck.

(Ike and his cousin)

Hello all this is Luke, making a rare showing on the blog. Okay, to everyone who has kids and "shared" advice with me things, which i am sure were sacred pieces of sage advice...I am sorry that i blew you off! I was ready to be a dad but not prepared, this is hard work. Like Amb said we just take him everywhere and make sure that he gets food and sleep and doesn't drink out of the dog bowl so far it works. I am sure i will listen when older wiser parents tell me things now and i am sure i will still blow some of it off; not that i don't care but some of the stuff people come up with is crazy plain and simple. The way i see it maybe little different than some i just want him to be happy and well rounded, i am hoping that we can get him out traveling and help him work on the well rounded portion and hope that we don't screw up bad enough to ruin the happy part. I am sure that he will be just fine since since i have seen in my limited experience as a parent some awesomely poor examples of parenting and their kids seemed okay or at least salvageable. I am having a blast and he is one of the funniest little guys i have ever met and i think the will have big plans for himself in the future and i can not wait to see what happens tomorrow.

Less Words Wednesday

2009-12-02T19:11:00.001-08:00

Who's the cutest one year old couple EVER?

Ike's First American Hair Cut

2009-12-01T19:01:00.000-08:00

Today Ike had a big day. We started off going to Gymboree. (I do realize this goes against our 'staying at home thing') Ike loves people and meeting new friends.

Going to Gymboree was pretty funny for us, because we made fun of it for a really long time. I always thought it was dumb to pay money to play with your own baby. But after having a child, I realize that Mommies and Daddies need something to do all day long.

Any who, he loved Gymboree. He met lots of new babies. All of the other children were walking and we could tell Ike was not happy about being the only crawler. He practiced his steps all day long and he took about 3-4 steps alone. WOW. He also learned to wave 'hello' and 'bye' by watching the other kids, even though we have been working on it since he has been home, a whopping week and a half.

After Gymboree we went and showed him off to my office and ate and then went to Salon W for a hair cut. Our friend, Chad, cut his hair. He looks terrific! You can't really tell by these pictures, but the new hair makes him look at least 2 months older :). We mainly just trimmed his bangs and gave him a cut.

After all this we came home and had some visitors. He was excited to meet his buddy Sebastian and my friends, Jamie and
Blair.

Poor Ike is teething, which is causing him some pain and discomfort. He is also still refusing to take naps unless we are driving. Luke and I have taken several tours of Oklahoma City in the last few days. I really think he is just scared he is going to miss out on something. He's our little one :).

Thank you, everyone, for your comments and emails.

2009-11-28T20:21:00.000-08:00

I really would like to thank everyone for their comments and emails. It is helpful to know what other people have done to help their babies get to sleep.

I would like to stress that we are not putting him in his crib and shutting the door for the whole night.

Last night he slept all night long. It did take a long time for him to go to bed. We are talking hours. Today, he took no naps despite our trying. Tonight, it took less time for him to go to sleep. But it was still trying and heat breaking. It's only been 8 days.

During the day, Ike is a little brilliant genius. We are scared of his intelligence. He is loving, funny, active, intuitive, inquisitive, and a pure joy. He just has trouble at night. I think anyone who is sad or worried or anxious about anything is more so when they are tired.

We went to the OKC Zoo today. We love the zoo and have been Zoo Friends my whole life. He had a great time. He loves animals and can already name a few in English. I carried him because I was cold and haven't worked out in a long time and I figure that carrying 25 lbs around has to be considered a weight barring activity. Plus we thought it would be less stimulating for him. Although, he seriously never seems to have had too much. Ike was tired shortly after we arrived so we didn't stay very long.

This week we are going to try our best to take it easy and limit visitors and activities. We are going to 'do our best and forget the rest', which means we will still have some visitors and will still go some places.

I appreciate everyone's concern and it is nice to know so many people read our blog.

Sleep???

2009-11-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

I know lots of new parents have questions about sleep. I know it has only been 1 week. I know that he might still have jet lag. I know all these things, but if anyone can give me any other advice we would SO appreciate it. This blows.

Lots of adoptive parents sleep with their child on the floor after they come home from Korea. In South Korea, the family sleeps together on the floor. We were planning on this. We were not planning on him having a huge aversion to any sort of sleep that required lying down. The first 5 nights we walked with him while he was asleep. We walked while we were asleep. We tried to sleep on the one piece of carpet we have in our house which happens to be a 5'/7' rug. He squirmed and threw himself all over us. The defining moment came when I thought he may have broken my noise in the middle of the night by head butting me randomly.

Some of you may have read my previous post the night before Thanksgiving stating that he was asleep in his crib. This was a miracle for us because we had not slept more that 4 hours a night in a week, even though we were taking turns sleeping. That night he did great. On Thanksgiving he he took a nap in his crib twice, easy peasy. However people at Thanksgiving thought it was appropriate to feed him untold amounts of food. It didn't occur to me until Ike screamed for 5 hours last night with an apparent stomach ache and from being 'over stimulated' (a term I used to make fun of). I kept seeing visions and hearing people saying "Ike loves turkey", "Ike loves cheesy green beans", "Ike likes sweet potatoes". Really? It didn't occur to me to have to include 'don't feed Ike" with 'don't feed my dogs". I thought everyone knew you were supposed to ask before you fed babies?

Needless to say, Ike did not sleep till midnight. It is not only that he does not want to sleep in his crib. He does not want to sleep during the night or really at all. I know he is tired because he falls asleep for brief periods and then wakes up screaming. It is heartbreaking and terrifying for us. All of us including the dogs. I have read other people's accounts on how they slept on the floor, slept in the baby's room, etc.. I know about his jetlag, but really he seems over it. I think it is that he was used to sleeping on the floor with his foster mom and, more than that, he was used to sleeping where ever on the floor and getting bottles all the time. She said numerous times that he moves around a lot in his sleep and he sleeps where ever he wants. Looking back, I think this means that he tries to beat you up in his sleep and crawles all over the floor. This behavior is not safe here. We have spiders sometimes from the field behind our house. We have big dogs that could step on him if he is somewhere unexpected. We only have that small piece of carpet, the rest is cold wood. Not wonderful heated floors, like they most likely had.

Anyway. I know everyone is laughing at me. I knew we would be tired. I did not know how horrible of a person it would make me or that I would be in physical danger from a 25 lb boy. I actually think he might be sleeping now. :)

If any of you have any sort of advice please comment me or email AmberRCorbin@gmail.com

(The above picture is my brother fixing Ike's really long hair.)

First week home

2009-11-25T19:17:00.000-08:00

We have been home for almost a week. He is a little sugar. We are calling him our mandu (Korean dumpling). He spends most of his time in his high chair or somewhere eating. This kid eats constantly and is ALWAYS hungry. He eats everything.

We have been having some, umm "sleeping problems", meaning Luke and Amber get no sleep. Ike sleeps. He sleeps all day and screams all night while he is asleep. One issue, besides the 15 hour time difference and his constant hunger, is he tosses and turns and has horrible nightmares while he sleeps. He wants to constantly be held and have us walk up and down the hallways all night. We realized today that this habit is not sustainable for us. We are not getting any sleep which is in turn is cracking us up, and not in a funny way.

So tonight, after consultation from our social worker we went through a routine that we are starting and put him in his crib.

Believe it or not he went to sleep. For a second, I thought he might not be breathing because he was not screaming like he was being injured, but low and behold he was asleep. We will see how this plays out tonight. I am so nervous. The hard times are from 2-4:30 or so. We will see.

Ike has had a lot of visitors. I know this is bad, but his people want to see him. We have mainly been having grandparents, but we have also been visited by Ike's friends, C and the
triplets.

He loves people and loves to be out and about. Especially, he loves to go out to eat. He also likes to shop. He is very much like us. And just to brag, the doctor asked if we were 'sure about his birth date' because he is so advanced. He hammed it up for the doctor. High-fives, repeating words, laughing, calling us mommy and dadda. Really amazing. I can't believe all the words he has already picked up and how well he is taking everything in.

We love him. He is perfect.

How are we doing?

2009-11-22T07:03:00.000-08:00

"How are you doing", is the question people keep asking us, so I figured all my internet friends were probably wondering the same thing. Actually, we are doing great! He is a little champ. Right now he is asleep on the floor. He did sleep last night, which is amazing considering the night we had before.

He has really taken to us and the dogs. He thinks they are so funny. He likes to chase Sculley around the house, which she loves! Hopefully I will be able to get some video of this. He loves to pet them and he tends to touch them when he gets tired.

Sculley is constantly concerned about his whereabouts and Mulder just wants to lick him.

Ike has started to give kisses, however he gives kisses like Sculley and Mulder. We are hoping he doesn't turn into a feral child.

He loves to eat. He eats all the time. He only cries when he is tired or hungry. I feel like we might have had a break through, because he has been sleeping some with out us holding him. We have been making a trial in our hallway by walking him back and forth for HOURS. Before I ran, now I walk in dark hallways holding a 25 lb boy. Oh, and that's right 25 POUNDS! He is huge.

We have only been home 2 1/2 days but we have been trying to go about our normal day as much as possible. Friday night was a tough one. Ike was scared and over tired and screamed for a really long time. He would fall asleep, then wake up screaming. Luke and I were going on 36+ hours of little to no sleep. All I could think about that night was just making it to 7 am so we could go to the bagel shop and I could get a coffee. Well, he finally went to sleep around 5 am after we fed him, so we didn't end up going to the bagel shop till 1:30. Then we went to Baby USA because they have been waiting to see him all this time. Then we went to get a contract signed (yep, of course I got an offer on a listing while we were gone. Yah, but uhhg, reading is very trying right now) and then we went to Target to buy him some pants that fit. Everything we had was either shorts, too small or too big.

He did great on our outings. Our buddies happened to be at the Bagel Shop with their little girl who loves to say "Ike, Ike, Ike". She shared her snacks and drink with Ike. We forgot to bring snacks and a cup. We are still getting used to this parenting stuff.

Today I am sure we will have more visitors. We have mainly been having grandparents over, but I think today we are having some friends and his aunt and uncle come. We are also thinking of going to the zoo. It is going to be a nice day and we are trying to keep him outside as much as possible to get his days straight. Both days we did our normal walk, which he loved. It's kinda a lot to walk two big dogs and a stroller even with two people. It will definitely be a challenge to do it alone. Maybe we will still him in his carrier when we do that?

Anyway, we are adjusting nicely. I hope that things keep going as smoothly. He is a joy and is super funny. I think we will be very busy for the next 18 years. :)

We Have Ike!

2009-11-20T17:41:00.000-08:00

No buddy took him from me! I know that is a weird thing to write, but I have been worried about for nearing 6 months!
(Here we are with Dr. Kim and Ike's wonderful foster mom)

The flight home was long, but short and, thankfully, over. He did so unbelievably great. He was handed to us in the van to go the airport in Seoul and he did great. He did great in the airport. And btw, we can not say enough about how wonderful Korean Air was to us!

In the plane, he did great. He loved to sleep on Luke's lap. He didn't sleep very much, and when he did he would wake up really confused and disoriented.

On the way to Seoul we watched movies, listened to music, talked, etc. On the way back we did non of those things. We just played with Ike and tried to make him feel comfortable.

(Here we are sliding in the Seoul airport)

We had a huge welcoming party back in OKC. Most of our family came and some of our friends. It was nice. Ike did well. It was scary for everyone with all the flashes.

Last night Ike didn't sleep very much, neither did we. He didn't sleep very much today either. He mainly eats, plays, and pees. He pees all the time, but I think it is because on the plane we kept giving him bottles so he wouldn't get dehydrated.

He is the best one. He is such a joy and so happy. He LOVES tv. And Music. He also likes to throw things on the ground. He has learned several words and likes to play his piano.

I'll write more later when I'm not on baby duty. He is a lot to keep up with. :)

DMZ Day

2009-11-18T02:25:00.000-08:00

Today we went to the DMZ, or demilitarized zone. It is the most heavily fortified area in the world. There are 4 km between the North and the South. South Korea has capitalized on this area by making it a huge tourist trap.

(Here I am showing you North Korea.)

We went on a tour with about 20 other people of all nationalities. It was pretty interesting and we were able to go into "tunnel 3" which is a pretty big tunnel North Korea dug to try and get to Seoul. We walked down a huge incline to see the tunnel and than back up. Our little tour guide said "this will be difficult for every one", looked at me and said, "even you will find it tough". She was right. The way up was a challenge.

North Korea has a fake village that is supposed to make it look like people live there. They have it really bad in NK. People are starving and must
work really hard just to survive. No one is allowed to look into SK because they might see how well the rest of the world has it. There are not any trees on the NK side because they have all been cut down for firewood or to try and make bark soup. It is sad. SK has dreams of reunification with the North. Apparently in the beginning the North had it way better. People had food and there are more natural resources than in the South. Families were split up and still, 60 years latter, have no contact with each other. (left is me a head above the tour guide. This never happens!)
The South even has a train station built ready for train transportation between the North and the South. Of course if this train stain could ever be used but it could have major economic impact on the South, letting the South have access to China and all of Asia and Europe through trains.

(this picture is smack in the middle of Seoul.)

Tomorrow we pick up Ike forever. It is weird. I have never been with a child as long as our flight lasts and We are going to be responsible for him forever. I hope we are qualified! Our flight doesn't leave till 7:50 pm so we have to hang out till 4:00pm when they pick us up to go get Ike and then we will be off to the airport. I am hoping the flight home is empty like this flight over here was.

Signing out from my last blog in Seoul. Wish us luck!

2nd meeting

2009-11-17T04:04:00.001-08:00

Today went well too! We went and ordered something for Ike and then went to see him again. His FM was very anxious and to be honest and really wanted to leave the entire time. I think she may have been having a panic attack, which made both of us almost have one. I know this is hard for her; and I think when we were left alone with him she was secretly hoping he would scream. Instead he loved it and kept playing and laughing and giving us kisses. She was looking into the room then closing the door. This happened for about half an hour. I know she is very sad. I am sad for her. It is apparent that her and her family care deeply for Big Ike. But this is the way it is and has to be. It is heart breaking. We got her a frame of the four of us that we will give her on Thursday, which I'm sure will not really help, but maybe help her to understand how much we love him.

This might be a trying time for all of us. Big Ike has no choice in this. We have chosen him. Foster mom is trying to help with with transitions, and seems to have done a good job. Please think of all of us in the next few days. Luke and I are very excited but still nervous about the hugh change, and I am sure everyone else feels nervous as well.

We cannot wait to be home, even through we love it here very much. I miss my dogs and cannot wait till they meet Big Ike.

Tomorrow is DMZ day! (P.S. every time Luke walks by this chair he stubs his toe. Plus we had the coolest taxis cab driver who kept grabbing Luke's hat, rubbing his head and then shooting "Obama" and pumping his fists.)

Dr. Kim-Shopping Day

2009-11-16T03:54:00.000-08:00

Today we had a late morning date with Dr. Kim, the head of Eastern Social Welfare Society, and other families who are here to pick up their kids. Dr. Kim told us a little about her life during the Korean War and after, about how and why Dr. Kim, Sr. founded Eastern and what the Agency is doing now to help children, unwed mother's and the elderly.

Afterwards, Eastern provided us all lunch. Then we took our new friends on an uneventful walk around Seoul. Like what sometimes happens to us, almost everything was closed. The guide book said these things were closed on Tuesday, turns out they are closed on Monday. We did, however, make it to Insadong to do a little shopping. We bought some things that I unknowingly have been looking for. I keep telling Luke I want to buy "traditional Korean stuff". He keep pointing to Korean's making things and saying what more could I mean. But everyone knows what I'm talking about. Things that tourist buy :).

Well we found them; and then, of course, went to dinner. Tomorrow we meet Big Ike again. I'll let you know how it goes afterwards.

(oh, here are some cool things that we saw. This lady was making the prettiest things out of candy. It was hard to take a picture of because they are huge and wrapped in plastic wrap. I wish I could carry one home :( )

Across from "Plan B"

2009-11-15T05:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight we went into Hongik to eat dinner at a place that was recommended to us. However, this place was only written in Korean so we couldn't find it, but then we decided on this other place whose name was in Korean writing, it was across from "Plan B" a bar. I'm pretty sure they don't know what this means in American, or maybe they do? Anyway, it was delicious. We pointed to this dish that a near by table had and we loved it.

Our goal tonight was to stay out till 10 pm. Normally that would be no problem. But for some reason we are not on anyones time schedule and seem to have made our own. We go to bed way early and wake up way early. Not usually our style-which is stay up late; sleep late.

So, I don't know if I have mentioned this? But we LOVE SEOUL! We would recommend to everyone to travel here. Everyone is nice and helpful and there is so much to do.

Tomorrow we will meet with the head of the agency here, Dr. Kim and then have lunch with "other families"? Tuesday we will see Ike again and Thursday we will get him for good before we leave.

Thank you all for the wonderful comments. We have enjoyed them. Below are pictures links from the trip so far. Assuming you have a few hours....

http://picasaweb.google.com/amberrcorbin/PalaceDay?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amberrcorbin/MarketDay?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/amberrcorbin/ColdStairFishDay?feat=directlink

Cold-Stair-Fish Day

2009-11-14T22:49:00.000-08:00

So, last night we took a "Nap" from 5:00 pm to oh lets say some where around 6:30, Amber says 5:30 am we will call it 6 even. I was as as you could imagine staving when we woke up. It has been a long time since i missed a meal much less dinner.

We cleaned up had a quick snack and hopped the train for the Noryangjin Fisheries Wholes Sale Market. It has been open 24 hours a day for 76 years and running. It was unreal, everything from Krill to Sharks and everything in between. I saw a whole Monk Fish that was around 15 pounds for 30000 Won (about 27 bucks) which would buy you a pound or two at home. This picture is the first row of 7 and they are an equal distance in the other direction as well. I bet there are secrets from the sea waiting to be discovered in this place, it was really something awesome and underplayed by the tour books

We left the market due to well...smell it was pretty impressive and it was 37 degrees outside, a hot summer day and I bet that place has a smell that could truly bring people to their knees.

Anyway we got back on the train and accidently rode it to the end of the line; no kidding they turned the lights out and everything! during their end of the shift sweep they found amber and i, we had been talking about the adventures that were still to come and missed the transfer station. Through no fault of our Korean skills they backed the train up and let us out.

We found our way to the Seoul Tower in Namsan Park named for you guessed it Namsan Mountain (if you guessed that good for you) any way the tower is on top of the mountain it was a decent sized mountain, keeping in mind i am from The Great State of Oklahoma and have an aversion to hills. We climbed (walked) up the glorious Namsan mountain and it brought back memories of the time i thought i was going to have to be rescue helicoptered out of the Grand Canyon. What can i say i am a cardio challenged big guy, who likes adventure some things are at odds from time to time. I ate some "Rich Nuts" a nice Korean chocolate nut snack and pressed on to the summit or the tourist center if you want to be picky.

At the top we met this Japanese man who was pretty funny and like to yell at me "in a nice way of course. He took a picture of Amber and i with the traditional guards before we rode the elevator to the top of the tower and checked out how big this city really is.

Here we are 150 meters up and with a great view we hug out for a while and then headed of to hike down (my favorite part) where we went to see a old traditional village. It was about what you would think touristy and cheesy but a need to see for some. We headed back into the city and looked around and found some cool little markets and searched for a place to go inside and get warm.

We went into this place in a little alley that was packed with people who seemed to know some thing, and they did we found a cool little place with tea and heated floors which was really nice since we were pretty frozen after out hike down the mountain. We tried to order and I think they gave us everything on the menu and laughed and had fun taking to us even after it was clear that we had no clue what they were saying. it was a great day and now we are back at the room resting and determined not to go to sleep at 5:30 again.

(Back to Amber) I'm not sure if Luke made it clear how cold it is here. 32 degrees with a nice breeze at about 20 miles and hour. It is freezing. I have on a tank top, wool long sleeve tee shirt, polar fleece half zip, North Face fleece heavy jacket, scarf, hat, gloves, and smart wool heavy socks. I wish I had on tights, ear muffs and better gloves. It's really really cold. But it is a beautiful sunny day, so that is nice. :)

The heated floors are amazing. I love going into restaurants and sitting on heated floors! It is so incredibly nice. The floors in our hotel room are heated too! I wish we had installed them in our house. Also the seats on the metro are heated. Very nice. Although it is hard to get a seat on the metro.

I'm open for suggestions of your favorite place in Seoul!

Market Day

2009-11-14T13:48:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday was "Market Day". And just like "Palace Day", we did not even touch the surface of how many markets there actually are here. There is a market and possibly a street for every thing. A whole street devoted to stamps, toys, lighting, towels, seafood, pigs, buttons, zippers, etc...

There was a whole Shepard Mall size building devoted to fabric. Not to mention aisles and aisles of fabric notions.

We walked around for 7 or 8 hours yesterday. This city is so incredibly huge and seems to have no ending. Every street is different and, like I said early, devoted to ONE thing. It's so crazy.

Yesterday I talked about how huge the Hyundai Department Store was; Then we saw Lotte. Lotte takes up a whole city block and is massive. Plus, I think Lotte owns everything here. Down the street from where we are staying there is a Lotte something or other which I think may be like a Nordstorms Rack. I found a Burberry coat on the street for around $80. I was going to get it on the way back but they were closed, so maybe I will today.

Another thing that is crazy here is the leaf obsession. It is fall here and the leafs are falling off the trees, but there are hardly and on the ground because someone is right there waiting to throw it away. Same goes for all trash. There is none.

I am hopping we are done trying the street food, because we are getting so full of stuff we don't know what it is that we have had trouble actually eating. The food here is terrific! I will totally miss it here. Of course Luke will miss the surplus of super cheap snacks and so will I. We got these little pastry things filled with some sort of chestnut paste on the street for like $.40. Everything is very very cheap. We haven't spent more than $20 on any meal including drinks. The subway is about $.50 a trip after the refund (when the card is deposited you get half your money back!). I bought sweet earrings yesterday at the "Free Market" for $8!

This stream is where the "lantern festival" is going on. It was covered up in the 1050"s for urban renewal or something and then uncovered in 2005. The temperature of the city is said to have dropped 10%! It is very pretty. The landscaping reminds us of Oklahoma because it has similar, if not the same, plants and grasses. Except this stream would never work in the US. It has uneven surfaces and walkways with no hand rails. There are even rock passages to the other side. Some one could die or trip :)

(Here are some pictures of some of the things we saw, but they do not justice.)

The craziest thing here is the lack of white people. It is so quite and clean it is amazing. The only place we actually saw more than one white person at a time was when we had to try the Korean-Mexican restaurant. There all theAmerican's had congregated :)

Today we are going to the "fish market" and possible climb Seoul Tower. Mainly we just like to walk around and look at things.

Last night around 5 pm we came back to the hotel to regroup and take a short nap. We woke up at 5 am.

Off we go to enjoy another great day!

Palace Day

2009-11-13T14:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, after "Meet Ike Day", was "Palace Day". We went to Gyeonghuigung Palace and Gyeongbokgung Palace. We were going to go to another one but we ended up walking through neighborhood instead.

As we all know, yesterday started out with a terrific meeting with our son! Then we came back to Casa Ville, where we are staying, dropped off a few things and went to the Hyundai Department Store. It is huge. Thing Harrod's in London huge. It has 14 floors plus some basement floors. We can see how Seoul people are so smartly dressed! I would love to go in there and shop shop shop! But somehow I didn't buy anything, which is odd for us. In fact we didn't buy anything all day yesterday but food and entry tickets. I think we were overwhelmed. Anyway. The store has a food section where they hand out yummy samples. They have fruit all dressed up in arrangements that are simply gorgeous. (I took pictures but I took 300+ pictures yesterday so these are what I ended up with posting, in no particular order or reason.)
(Here I am with a fish filled with black beans we bought on the street. From the same lady we bought these little green pancakes filled with cinnamon chocolate. It was the best thing I have ever had, I'm pretty sure.)

Okay, so after the mega department store, we took the metro to what I am going to call "Seoul Central" or "Palace Land". Luke and I always try to walk a city, just because you see more things. So, after palace two we ended walking through a neighborhood which is supposed to be where the "hip people" live. It was "hip". There where MANY "coffee and waffle" shoppes. Seriously, they where all over the place. Next to another shoppe, across from each other, etc.. We were trying to walk to the end of the river walk which goes through Seoul. But we accidently ended up in the front do to the sweetness of our map and the nameless streets.
Seoul is having some sort of lantern festival and orange festival all wrapped into one. There were animals made out of oranges and people were placing their toddles on top of them, let say an orange cow for instance, walking ten feet away, and ten taking pictures.

(This is Luke) at the orange / lantern fest there was an "opening ceremony" it was one of the most interesting things i have seen and everyone including Amber and I were mesmerized. Let me give you a mental picture. It kicks it off with young ladies playing all kinds of drums (high school band kids would have been comatose) in a crazy mandarin orange forest that has been brought in and is as you guessed "full of Koreans." These drummers played the most interesting three song, lets get the party started set list of all time! Here it is in particular order: 1) the theme song from Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure 2) Hey Mickey Your So Fine and 3) Du Hast Mich by none other than Ramshtine... oh yeah thats right the cover of a lifetime four Korean girls rocking the oddest German techno with lights and smoke and of course oranges.

Still Luke here for a little longer, i do not bolg often but the what i will call "German techno orange light festival" has given me some words this morning. Okay folks, Seoul is the undisputed Snack Capital of the world! They are good snacks and they are cheap too, I love it here. I have no idea what is going on... but i can have snacks when ever i want and if some one asks me a question, i can just take a bite of my delicious tempura octopus and shrug, there is a beautiful lack of expectation the Korean people have of a six foot one, 240 pound, bald, white man. Let us just say it is a very freeing experience a city of ten million people that like you but don't expect anything from you what so ever. I will sign off for now and let Amb take it from here, i will be sure to fill you in on today's adventure tomorrow or should i say today for all of you in the US. Flying to Korea is like taking a Time Machine, Steven Hawkins was wrong after all, time travel is possible the crazy part is you watch 10 movies on the way and wind up in a wonderful snack filled land of no expectations with lights and techno all around you.
Okay, I'm back. We are going to tool around today. I think it might be "Market Day"? Hopefully, we will come back with some good stuff.

We Met Ike!

2009-11-12T18:06:00.000-08:00

He did GREAT! He is such a happy happy baby. He seems to be really easy going and Loves to get sugar kisses. We played for a long time and he looked for us as we were leaving!
I cannot wait to see him on Tuesday! I wish we could have taken him today, but alas, that is not how it is done.
He really loved Luke. He was very interested in him and smiled when Luke would touch him.
His foster mom gave us a bunch of pictures she took of him with her family and herself. I s apparent that he has been loved. I'm sure they will miss this little guy. It is early in the day, so we are going to go exploring. More later...

On our way!

2009-11-11T12:07:00.000-08:00

So we are on our second of three flights on our biggest journey yet.
We flew from OKC (where I agreed to get to the airport Luke style,
which means hours early, mainly because I almost made us miss out last
flight together and because, lets face it, this is a big deal) to Salt
Lake, which has a huge salt marshy thing we got to fly over for 10
minutes, and now on the way to Seattle.

In Seattle we have a super short thirty minute layover and then we
will be on the Korean Air flight to Seoul.

Booking this flight took me all morning yesterday. "why" you might
ask? Becasue I feel I belong in first class and am constantly trying
to finagle my way up there. Usually it works becuase of my frequent
flyer credit card (which I whole heartedly recommend). This time there
were no dice. But that didn't stop me from calling Delta at least
10-12 time yesterday to try and come up with somethig. Bottom line:
Delta miles do not equal Korean Air miles. But no one will just come
out and say that which is how it took three hours.

Also, I cannot find my credit card that I always use AND we could not
find luke's frequent flyer number. I couldn't book the ticket without
it because there would go any chance of UPGRADE. We called numerous
"Delta representatives regarding this matter and none could find him.
Most likily someone made up a name for him.

Finally, I changed his name and got him a new number. Then we realized
we were leaving on Thursday but not getting there till Saturday! Game
Over and I started again. I screamed at Luke, the dogs and wrote a
horrible review of Delta, probably unfounded but I have almost 200,000
miles and a huge dollar amount of vouchers and was un able to use ANY
of them!

So I booked this flight which left the same day. Our adoption agency
is fairly against next day flights. Our coordinator thinks I'm insane.
Everytime I talk to her always happends to be when I'm at my worst.
But really this flight is much better. Less time. Less money. Less
time to freak out!

So we are rushing to make this connection. But I'm hungry. I had to
stop and get a salad for the plane. I did not think to get a fork. The
guy next to me, I guess, is annoyed that I keep talking about it and
hunts down a flight attendent for a fork. But we are taking off so I
put my salad under my seat. Of course the salad slides so far behind
me I, Luke and poor guy next to me can't reach it. By this point Luke
is determined I will eat my salad. The plane is sqeaking like crazy
(Luke hates sqeaking). The guy behind us isn't paying attention to
both Luke and poor guy to my right so they are trying really hard to
get his attention. I get my salad back. Now I don't want to eat it
because I'm worried the mayo based dressing might be bad and I'll get
sick on my 12+ hour flight. So, I ate the salad with no dressing
feeling very much like a trouble maker :).

Wish us luck with our connecting flight. I was not able to secrue a
first class seat on this flight (or possibly any due to the last
minute nature of my booking) but I did talk the desk agent into
putting us in the first row. I think we can do it?

Ready... Set... Go...

2009-11-10T18:40:00.000-08:00

Here.... We...... Goooo to Korea! We are leaving tomorrow! Fortunately, Our house sitter was available on such short notice! We are nervous. We are excited. I think the term is "anxious"? A term I have used a lot lately. I am so glad we were able to go on such short notice because Luke and I are not good planners? It's 9pm and we're not ready. We went to dinner with friends. :)

I will be posting from S. Korea, so please wish us luck with Big Ike. He will soon be abducted by aliens and I'm sure it will be scary. I feel bad for him, but I don't know if there is a child in the world that is loved as much and by more people than him. Lots and Lots of Big Scary People. :)

Signed,

amber and Luke, a childless couple for a few more days....

Visa Interview!

2009-11-06T13:21:00.000-08:00

Ok, so seriously, this is THE LAST THING they needed before they will call us and we can go! Of course it happened on a Friday, so the earliest we could get a call would be Monday. It might be Tuesday. It could be the next week. But I am hopefully for MONDAY!!!!!!!!

We are going to start packing tonight or tomorrow or an hour before we get on the plane-depending on how we feel :). I hope we start packing soon though so we don't forget anything.

It is custom to bring gifts for people that work at the orphanage and the foster mom. I am really afraid I'm going to somehow misplace those items.

I posted a picture of the quilt I made for the foster mom earlier, I got his social worker an OU shirt, and I bought everyone else cheese shaped like Indians and buffalo from the OKC cheese factory. I am hopeful I will be able to get it in the country. I know that cheese is a weird gift, but I was trying to think of something that no one else has brought yet? I feel dumb even talking about it. It's really hard to buy gifts for people you don't know and will never see again, yet want them to know how much you appreciate them?

I caught these footballs last night at the Del City football game. They lost. But Mulder and Sculley love them.

Anyway, lets hope for Korea next week!

Big IKE's room.

2009-11-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

First, my Dad wants to "change the way we talk about [Ike]". He wants to start calling him "BIG Ike!" and "interject an aura of strength with compassion and generosity". That was a text message I received from my dad the other day. So, OKAY GREAT! BIG IKE it is!

I just wanted to show Big Ike's room. Clearly he needs more things. I have been doing laundry ALL DAY LONG and it is ALL HIS CLOTHES! Really? Why? Why does he need so much? Of corse some of the clothes go to 24 months.

He has toys coming out the wazoo. My mom has a whole room filled with toys. Seriously. It was my step-brother's room growing up. It used to have a bunk bed with two dressers and all his stuff. Now it is all TOYS for Ike. Including a ball pit-you know like the ones they used to have a Mc Donald's when we were little?

He has 7 bathing suits! Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to take him out of the country till we are able to formally adopt him-6 months! This is already the longest I have been in the US in years. Then after Korea I will be stuck here again. However, we can still go to Puerto Rico! Which I love, love, love!

Can you see the "Mini" in the back ground?

I drive a red Mini. My parent's thought it would be funny if BIG Ike had his own Mini. It has lights, a horn and drives all around the house.

The chair was Luke's grandpa's favorite chair. He is 93! and gave it to Ike. It is clear no one loves him. :)

I know it looks bare here, but I'm getting a picture framed for this location. My grandpa painted it for me and after all these years I'm framing it for BIG Ike.

The frog is a piggy bank we started for him before we received our referral. Luke's a banker. Therefore, Ike needs his own savings account. We have to wait till we adopt him formally to start his I-39 (?) College thing??? I'm just worried about the day-to-day (notice the clothes....)

(I'm pretty sure I need to re-do his closet. The top shelf is way to tall for little ol' me.)

Anyway, his room doesn't really look that awesome from these pictures :( I didn't stage it. I just wanted to convey that he has a bunch of stuff! I guess that is what you do when you can't love on someone physically. We, in my circle, love with stuff. Fortunately I know of a few little boys that are about 10 months younger than BIG Ike and will be inheriting these things.

Sometimes I wish I was a more organized-photo shoot- kind of decorator . I showed a house the other day and this person was a great decorator. I'm/we are- just us?? We have lots of stuff and go lots of places and everything we own is from somewhere or someone and means something to us. We will be the old people that have things from around the world and one day Ike will want to pull out his hair because he won't know what to do with it. :)

So here we are. Today we have a room with lots of things for a little boy that we have 11 pictures and 12 minutes of video of. Soon, we will have that same little boy, running and screaming around the house. Breaking our "thing"riding our dogs and loving every minute of it. We honestly cannot wait. We've waited our whole lives. As long as I can remember and Luke from our first date 12+ years ago, and it is finally almost here.

Now we wonder "what are we going to do with him"?

*Please vote!

Poll.

2009-11-04T17:40:00.000-08:00

I have created a poll about when you think I will get my travel call. If you answer the last choice I will hunt you down! hahahaha I just washed ALL of his clothes! He has so many! I hadn't even cut the tags off any of them. It took me a while. He is so cute and will look like quite the REALTOR in his little two piece suits! :)

Tomorrow is month 5, but he has his PASSPORT!

2009-11-01T19:48:00.000-08:00

(Just a little picture of Mulder from Luke's phone.)

Hopefully this means that we will be traveling ANY day (or in the next 4 weeks). I'm excited. Not SO excited because I'm a worry wart and am nervous this part will take forever. But in the interest of not wasting away things to be happy about I'm going for a run to enjoy the beautiful day and then start working on my last two projects I wanted to get done. Once they are complete I will post pictures. However I forgot to take "befores" so most of you will not know the difference. :)

On the running front... I went with the Nike Eclipse. I have been running in them for a little over a week and really like them. I can feel my feet getting stronger and my knee/hip seems to hurt much less! That is news for excitement! I ran every day, which is something I haven't been able to do a year. Whoo Hooo. All my runner friends, I suggest* to you to get thin-no support shoes. It has really been helping a lot of my friends who run and were having issues. (read Born to Run) :)

*I am not a medical doctor. As an attorney I feel obligated to have disclaimers :)

Sculley and Mulder's Coats of Many Colors.

2009-10-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

This is Mulder. He is 4 1/2 and weighs around 80 lbs. He has very little fur. Therefore, he is constantly cold. 3 years ago I started making him coats because it is too hard to find coats to fit big dogs. He loved this coat. He wore it everyday and when he wasn't wearing it he would carry it around. When people came over he would go grab his coat and show it to them. Needless to say, the coat barely made it through the season. Sculley also loves new coats, but for her it is more of a fashion statement to wear on walks.

This was the coat of '08. The colors didn't seem to work out right. I made it in a hurry. Mulder did not like this coat. He was not at all proud of it. I didn't made Sculley one because her coat from '07 still fit and was in good shape. So here I was, Sculley was mad at me because she did not get a new coat and Mulder was embarrassed of his..

This year, I tried to make a similar coat to '07. I wish I had a picture of Sculley and Mulder's eyes when I held up the fabric! They both lifted their heads from the couch and started shaking their little tails with excitement. They knew and new coat was a coming.

This year I made Sculleys coat first. She was good with her fittings and stayed around the sewing table incase I needed to measure her again. She doesn't like sleeves and will not wear a hood so her pattern is different than Mulder's. She has significantly more hair than Mulder so she doesn't need the extras. She LOVES her new coat and is very proud of it. I think it shows off her figure nicely. Mulder's had to wait until today. He was not happy about not having his coat yesterday with Sculley.

He LOVES his new coat too! I feel so accomplished. It makes me very happy to see them prancing around in their new coats! I'm excited to walk them around the park in their new coats.

EP.

2009-10-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Woooooo Hoooooo! That's Emigration Permission for all you non-adoption people. I have been waiting for this since mid-July and it finally came today! YAY!

New shoes.

2009-10-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

First I want to stress that I'm okay. I guess my post was a little sad yesterday. But I'm totally feeling better. I think that is what I was unsuccessfully trying to convey. I woke up again in the a.m. so I think we are on the up and up.

Yesterday I ordered 4 pairs of shoes. Yes, 4. However three are running shoes and I intend on sending 2 of them back.

I Just finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The book chronicles the Tarahumara indians from the Copper Canyons in Mexico. They are super runners and run 100 miles at a time with only sandals made from old tires. I heard of these people on a documentary, The Runner and then again on NPR after the author visited them in Mexico. So, I was super pumped when my buddy bought me the book for my birthday!

The story of the race is amazing, but one thing I think everyone took out of this book is that traditional running shoes are tearing up runners knees, feet, hips, etc..

When I first started running 15+ years ago, I ran in Nike Pegasus. Then they where discontinued. (I kept them so long that my friends tied them to the back of the homecoming float so I wouldn't be able to wear them any more.) In high school and college my running shoes were fairly flat. In law school, when I started really running distance (not counting high school track or cross country) I found the Pegasus again. They were completely different, but the concept of a flat shoe with no real support was there. I wore those shoes in my 5 mile daily runs and all over Europe. I wore them until they actually feel apart. Then they were discontinued.

During that time I had fractured my leg. It was really minor, but was aggravated by my running. Everyone told me I needed to run in "better shoes". So I went to the OKC runner and they fitted my with the Asics Gel-Nimbus, which I have been running in till this day, 7+ years latter. I ran two marathons in them a ton of other races as well as everyday runs.

3 or so years ago my knee started really hurting. I thought I had been running too much and then working all day in 4 inch heels. I reluctantly gave up the heels, but my knee still hurts.

Born to Run presents research that traditional running shoes, mainly shoes that cost over $100, weaken the muscles in your feet, which in turn weaken other muscles and make a runner more prone to injuries. The research was convincing enough that I went out to buy flat shoes.

I decided on the

I Like:

Free 5.0 V4 by Nike

">Nike Free, mainly because they looked the closest the the Pegasus that I loved so much. I could not find them anywhere! Apparently, they have been discontinued! Never fear, I ordered them on Zappos.com. With 24 hour FREE shipping and FREE return shipping it can't be beat. I also ordered two other pairs to check out,

I Like:

Free Trainer 7.0.IV">Nike Free Trainer and

I Like:

Eclipse NM">Nike Eclipse. Hopefully one of these pairs will be the running shoe of my dreams!

(Good news it that the boots I ordered yesterday just now arrived! Whoo Hoo!)

Anyway, I will keep everyone posted on my experiment. My knee may be too far gone for any difference, but I am not willing to give up! Since I ordered my running shoes separately from my sweet new boots and after 1 p.m. yesterday, they will all be here tomorrow!

If you are a runner or you are interested in other cultures, Born to Run is an excellent book.

Still Here. Still Waiting..

2009-10-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging MIA lately. Actually, I have basically been MIA for everything. Everyone who has been through this probably knows what's going on. No one calls me any more because they are afraid to "upset" me by asking if I've heard anything. And I am afraid to call anyone because people answer their phone with "HELLO!!!!", meaning "OH MY GOD DID THEY CALL YOU AND NOW YOU ARE AT THE AIRPORT HEADED TO KOREA??!!!". Then they are completely let down.

I used to read other's blogs and wonder how people could constantly check their emails all day. Now that I am no longer working I realized that I didn't have to constantly check my email because I always had my email working and was on the computer. Now that I have no reason to stay online 24-7 I'm checking my email all the time. I check it at stop lights, when I'm in line for something, when I wake up, before I go to bed, after I take a shower...I'm sure you are getting the picture. And, since I have no work, NO ONE is emailing me! hahahaha. It is so funny. I used to get 100 emails a day easy, now it's just advertisements.

Needless to say, I've been in a bit of a funk. It started in August when I was super anxious. Then I thought they could call me any day, EP!, PP!, TC! And then we would head out. The end of August I learned his emigration permission had not yet been filed. I was upset. I cried. I may have cried at work, at a closing, and maybe other places.

September 10, I learned his EP had been filed! Yeah! I thought "one month, tops!". I was very happy. To this day, it still has not been approved. Apparently, I have been stuck in a quota and an audit.

All this waiting has this waiting has pushed me into the next stage-you guessed it!-DEPRESSION.

The main reason I think I am/was so upset is that for over a year I have been obsessed with blog stalking. I had notes on how long it took all my internet friends to get a referral, to get their EP, PP, TC and everything else in between. I totally had it all planned out.

My research has proved to be worthless. :0 I know everyones process is different. blablabla.

Any who, I guess I'm feeling better now. I woke up in the actual morning. I seem to not be full of unjustified self-pity. :)

We did get another video. I would post it, but its honestly not that awesome. He is basically sitting there looking like "what the H is going on here and who are you people". The funniest part was when the foster mom pulled out the pumpkin coffee I sent her, asked what it was, and then made this funny face and put it back in the bag. That was so funny. I don't know what I was thinking. She probably doesn't even have a coffee maker. I should have sent tea. Oh well.

New Pictures!

2009-10-13T17:02:00.001-07:00

He looks like he might have been crying. But he is super cute. I really just want to hold him. I have no other news. I just got home from the airport. I went to see my buddy in DC.
I bet he is going to keep me on my toes!

4 months of waiting for Ike

2009-10-02T12:50:00.000-07:00

4 months isn't bad. I thought it might be 4 months. I thought we would be closing to going by now but crazy things happen with adoption paper work. It could all be done and I have no idea. It could take 2 more months. But, surely, we're almost done, right?

However, as some of you know, I have been taking this time to complete some things that have been nagging me for awhile. Today our base boards are finally being completed after 2 1/2 years of living here without them. I patched the wall where I used to have a floating shelf.

Next week, I hope to paint the base boards, and do some tile work.

Today I received some basic information on the woman I am sponsoring from Women to Women. She is 28, has 2 living children and lives in Rwanda. I was hoping to get some more information on her, but I guess we need to build our relationship first :).

I have been having these crazy dreams this week. Last night I dreamt that we were meeting Ike and he was so cute and then he turned into this 7 year old crazy child with red hair. I hope thats not a premonition of how much longer its going to take. :)

I finished my quilt.

2009-09-30T13:01:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my quilt that I have been working on for Ike's Foster mother. This picture is bad ( I hope). It is hard to make a quilt for an older person that I don't know. All of the fabrics are pretty, but none of them are something that I would pick out for me. Anyway, this will be my gift to her.

I bought other people that will be given presents (like the drivers, maids, etc..) little cheeses shaped like Oklahoma. Looking back it would have been better if I would have went with the cheese shaped like Indians. Maybe I'll go back. I bought an OU shirt for my Korean social worker and I have some Indian Blanket flower seeds to give out as well.

We were able to send another care package to Ike and FM yesterday. I didn't take a picture of what we sent. We put a stuffed pound puppy type dog, a book for chewing, pumpkin coffee, dove chocolates and note cards ( last three for FM).

Unfortunately I do not fit in a one gallon zip lock bag. I bet we will here something soon!

Another week with no news..

2009-09-24T17:20:00.000-07:00

Luke carved this in a table in Taos. (It was already carved up.)

I hate to complain since we did make the EP cut, but I was really hoping I would get a call this week to say it was approved. I know it is just Thursday, but I feel like no one finds anything out on Monday or Friday, so Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday I freak out all day long.

I'm thinking that since our EP was not approved this week it will be doubtful for us to travel in October. I could be wrong. It could happen. It is just getting less and less likely.

The main thing is that I am actually just sitting around waiting. I know I keep saying this but I really really thought I would have already traveled or would be traveling any day. So, I had prepared myself not to have any work after the second week of September. So now I have nothing going on. I keep making stuff up to do.

I am almost done with my foster mom quilt. I'm not sure if I like it. The materials I choose seems to have turned out to be more brown then blue, like I had thought.

I'm planning on redoing the hall bath to make it more boy-y. I put up wall paper in there when we moved in. Now I will be taking it down.

I need to dig the dirt out of my front gardens; it seems plants are struggling to survive in there?

I would like to re-tile our toe kicks under our cabinets. I'll probably do this after I finish the quilt since cutting tile can get cold if the weather isn't warm.

So, any who, I always have projects. I seem to want to blog stalk then to complete them :)

BFF

2009-09-22T19:27:00.000-07:00

Tonight I got to do something that I haven't done in Months and months and months. I went out with one of my very best friends by ourselves! She has been tied for #1 supportive person in our adoption and in everything else I have ever done. She is very fun and very loving. We used to spend almost every night together. We lived down the street from each other, then I moved 3 miles away, then she moved 15+! away. Plus she has a 11 month old that requires a lot of time and all year, until now, I have been working non-stop every day and might have been unavailable. We still have seen each other but with our husbands who are also friends. We are all great together, but sometimes it's good to be alone with your girl! I miss her so much. But NBD. Now that I'm not working 7 days a week I should be able to see her again all the time. And when I get Ikipoo we can all do baby things together??

We went to a couple restaurants tonight and did some bar hoping. First we started with the Drunken Fry. They serve fries with different dips. UMMM.... Maybe if it was 2 am and a different time in my life it would be great.... Next, we went to 105degrees. A restaurant that only serves food that hasn't reached 105 degrees. I'm thinking raw food. We order the Aged Cheese Plate. Then find out that we are at a vegan place. I like vegetarian, I like vegan, I'll eat all meat. I hate when food isn't what it says. (e.g. I like veggie burgers, I hate veggie burgers that are supposed to taste like meat.) We ended up getting "cheese" which is a nut by-product. There was no quotes around the aged cheese plate. The 'cheese" was okay. But we love us some wine and CHEESE. We were pretty disappointed.

The very REAL cheese I'm currently eating is delicious. :) I had an awesome time with her. We need to start making it a date!!

Sculley is just beautiful! I colored her in DoodleBuddy on my iphone. I guess I made her have no feet?? Don't worry, in real life she has 4 gorgeous white socked paws. :)

Someday....

2009-09-22T08:49:00.000-07:00

"When are you going to get your baby?" Holly cow I wish I knew! I'm so ready to go. I know that everyone who reads this blog (if anyone any more since it is not exciting and kinda depressing)is ready for me to go get this kid so I have something to say.

Other wonderful bloggers have different days where they write about different stuff that will hold someone's interest. I haven't been able to think of anything to say.

I do know that Ike's emigration permission has been filed. That could be approved any day. The we need his passport and then we need travel clearance. I'm really lucky that his emigration permission has actually been filed so at least things are in motion.

Right now I've been working on my crafts. I haven't had time to make anything in a long time. I'm making Ike's foster mom a quilt. Luke wasn't here to help me pick out the material so it's kinda all over the place. Luke is very good with colors, I have my own style. Odd... because Luke can match really bold patterned shirts with the perfect bold pattern tie and look amazing. I can match the perfect solid tee shirt or solid sweater with the perfect jean. Apparently I have no style...

I digress.... But While I'm at it, What happened to Martha? Martha Stewart is usually on at 11 am and now its Dr. Oz..... I am not happy about this.

3 months...

2009-09-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

Us at our Ike Shower. Unfortunately, this is the best picture of us from the party :(

It has been three really emotionally exhausting months since we found out about little Ike.

Before we knew about him I thought that waiting for the referral was so hard. I thought every day they would call me. For some reason I had a particular day in mind that they would call. When that day past I was upset and confused because I consider myself to be somewhat of a psychic. (Yes, I do know it sounds weird. But I am usually pretty good at predicting things. I have not been able to harness this power to win the lottery, although I have predicted other life changing events.)

So this particular day that I had been waiting for came and past and I was upset. I thought they would never call. Then one day they did. I had no idea they were going to call and it was shocking.

Now here I am coming up on the date I have imagined that we would get the call to travel to go pick him up, September 21. "Why September 21?", one might ask? Because I have imagined that I would get a call around my birthday (September 20 for anyone who is interested in buying me a present. Two tickets to S. Korea would be nice...) and Luke has very important meetings all that next week and I have classes that I must take Oct. 1.

This is how it works in my mind. September 21st is a Monday. I'll be busy doing something. the phone will ring. I'll be annoyed because I'm so busy or have my hands full. I'll see that it's Dillon. I'll momentarily freak then answer the phone. I'll say, "Hello, this is Amber" (like I always do) She'll say "hello Amber, how are you?", "fine", I'll say. She'll go on to say "We have travel clearance" or "are you ready to go pick up your son" or something similar.

I will be anxious to get off the phone to call Luke, but I won't be able to get a hold of him because he is in the important meeting or is giving a presentation. He'll finally call me back super excited but will not be able to leave work.

I will, of course, have nothing prepared. I will not have packed a bag for me or Ike. I will not have learned Korean like I keep saying I will. I will not have made arrangements for our dogs. I will go to the mall to prepare myself outfits, after I find us flights.

Hopefully, I will have knitted the appropriate people presents. I am currently learning to knit. I already sew and crochet among other things and I am not good at any of them. But now I am learning to knit. I took this on due to the look of a foster mom on one of the Blogs I stalk. The woman of the blog I stalk is currently in Korea picking up her beautiful son. She presented the foster mom a fantastic scarf she knitted and I could tell the FM was very impressed. This is what I'm going for.

I do have the time now....Since I am without me contracting gig and have elected not to go after new real estate business due to my hopefully pending travel and maternity leave. So now, as of tomorrow, I am without work. :) I am looking forward to some time. This year has been full of work and extra work and months of no days off. Wish me luck and hope I immediately don't start applying for jobs or randomly change careers. It has happened many times before......

Yesterday.

2009-08-29T05:51:00.000-07:00

Jasper Howard Harry

1996-2009

So yesterday I was in a major funk. But I'm starting to feel better about things. Instead of buying my new bag I am "sponsoring" a woman for a year with Women for Women. It is $27 a month and that money will go towards her learning a skill or starting a business or her tuition so that she may go get an education. All of this will help her break the cycle of poverty in her family and in her community.

See, first this women will be given an opportunity that was thought impossible by this small amount of money. She will teach her children that education is important and be able to send them to school with the money she is able to earn, they will be able to do the same for their children. She will be able to purchase items from other's in her community and they will then see how education/skill has helped and be more willing to send their girls to school so that they may be empowered.

In 4-6 weeks, I will be matched with a women that is in a desperate situation in a third world country. I will read her story and receive a picture and hopefully in the near future I will see how $27 a month has impacted her and her family.

I am so lucky to live in my beautiful home and have a husband that respects me, to have been given the opportunity to go to college and to law school, to have a family that supported me while I was in school, and to be able to adopt little Ikipoo so that he will give us the opportunity to be parents.

I am really sad that it may take longer to go get Ike than I thought. But he is in a good home. He does not know that I cried all yesterday, he has only seen a picture of me and luke. Now with my newly found free time I am going to work on my crafts, like I used too, finish up my garden, finish some of my other projects and hopefully sell lots of houses. :0.

ODD: my mom saw this morning that next to Ike's youtube video it the suggested view of Luke's deceased father's, Barry Meeker, video!!!!!! He was a pretty famous helicopter pilot. Mom thinks its a sign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GliXihx0QE

Also, Luke's families dog had to be put down yesterday. He was a wonderful dog. He used to pull me around the house as I sat on a towel. He will be extremely missed. He lived to be 13.

Women helping Women:AMAZING!

2009-08-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

I took this post off another blog I follow. It is amazing that in 2009 women are still being exploited. This article talks about different programs that are helping real women break free from their chains of poverty and then help other women do the same. AMAZING! If you don't have time to read the article, at least watch the video.

This is a great article written in the NYtimes. It's a bit long, but so worth the read. There is also a photo slide show about the women in the article. You can see that here.

Today

2009-08-28T12:27:00.000-07:00

Today has been a good day in that (1) I had a nice closing $$ and (2) that I took this lovely picture of Sculley and Mulder.

Today blows (1) that I found out that our Korean agency has not filed for Ike's emigration permission and thus it is going to be "God only knows when" before they are able to do so. I did find out yesterday that Ike's visa paper work is on its way to the embassy in Seoul so hopefully since that will be there they will file his emigration permission??? I guess it's not a big deal because he is in a loving home? I'm still upset :(

(2) today blows because I found out that one of my contracting positions has cut me because of budget short falls. I had suspected this, so I am not surprised. It will give me more time with Ike, if he ever gets here.

Tomorrow my friends are having a sweet party for us for Ike. They have been working really hard and I think we have a lot of people coming to support us. I do love a good party. I bought a party dress for the occasion. I hope to be feeling better about the Ike situation by then.

Yesterday I was super pumped about our visa paperwork being on a plane to Seoul. Now I'm just hoping it will help him get home faster. This would be a situation where is would in fact be appropriate to use the phrase "In God's time" or "God has a plan".

I am a believer in both of those. I think they are over used and used when it is more appropriate to say "Whenever I feel like it" or "I haven't gotten to it yet". "God" is thrown around a lot in adoption because it is a chance and a risk and a complete "jump of faith". But there are somethings that just require a stamp.

I do believe God is giving me our child just like the miracle of birth, but I sure do wish he would hurry up! :)

I feel like going to by a ridiculously expensive bag would make me feel better. Isn't that what everyone does when they lose a source of income??

Why Not...Stay at the Big Texan Honeymoon Suite?

2009-08-12T20:49:00.001-07:00

Well we love the Big Texan... The place where if you eat the 72 oz steak you get it for free. Luke will never attempt this. My friend who lives here in Amarillo says that it is mainly skinny little girls who are able to complete the task. I think she is lying to try and get me to take the challenge.

So we drive up to meet here her and see these Australian girls walk out of the hotel. (We knew because clearly Australians look differently than Americans??). We asked them how the hotel was and they said it was clean and comfortable and full of cut out cowboys. Good enough for us.
Our room Is big and comfortable. Not at all like a Red Roof Inn.
They even leave mints on your pillow.
Did I mention it was "The Honeymoon Suite"? Imagine the possibilities???? Tomorrow we head off to New Mexico for our little adventure. We decided we had to get away for a bit. Day on down in the books. Check it as good!

Yeah! Dad's birthday party!

2009-08-08T18:21:00.000-07:00

We had my Dad's 60th birthday party at our house today. It was a great turn out and we got some good pictures.
That's a pretty typical picture of us and the puppies. One never looks. I asked Luke if he thought we should run the loop of Ike's video through the entire party but he thought it would be a bad idea.
I really like this picture of my dad and my brother. I have never seen my dad in such a crazy shirt. I didn't even recognize him when he came in with the swarm of other people I didn't know. He had friends from high school come and relatives that I didn't know, plus a whole bunch of people from all aspects of his life.
This one was the first picture that Luke took. haha. Jake looks so disgusted. I don't know what the deal was. Luke kinda popped this picture on us.
Here is most of my immediate family. Notice that Luke snuck out of this picture and took it instead. I normally would have objected but there was still a bunch of other people over and I didn't want to have any of them take it not knowing they're skills or set my timer with 10 other people in the room. so he's missing. boooo.
Kelly came too which was such a big help. Plus every one loves her. I think its the toe head factor.
Sweet Mulder and Sculley had to stay outside during the entire thing due to the amount of old people at out house. I was worried someone would trip and fall over them. They were very upset that we were having a party and they were not the center of everything. Now we are enjoying a wonderful glass of wine and watching a movie. great....

Things I love...

2009-08-06T08:59:00.000-07:00

Well first I love the new pictures of little Ikipoo. He is getting so big!

I love the rain we have been getting all morning here in OKC.

I love that my peaches are finally ripe and I can eat them off the tree any time I want.

I love that Sculley and Mulder love to eat peaches off the tree and use them as balls to throw around the yard.

I love that my blogging friends just got home with their sweet baby from Korea.

I love that a forum buddy has finally gotten her travel clearance after way too long.

I love that the people I sold my first house to are still in my life and their daughter is now buying her first house (makes me sound old).

I love that their other daughters have agreed to dog sit next week.

I love that I have an interview tomorrow with another house keeper!

I love that my dad turned 60 yesterday and now thinks he is sooo old :).

I love planting a seed and watching it grow into something beautiful.

I love baking, even though I haven't had time to do any of it lately.

I love traveling.

I love that I am able to work from home.

I love being outside.

Lately I have been so anxious, I decided yesterday that I need to calm back down. So far it has worked out well. This weekend I'm having a pretty big party for my dad's birthday, on my aunt's birthday. I feel bad for that but I'll throw her a big party when she turns 60 :).

I'm excited about it. I hope everyone comes. That's the issue with "regrets only" is that I have no head count. Although recently the parties with "RSVP's" have fallen way short of the people that actually showed up. So oh well. We'll see who comes. I wish that my front garden looked better, but this summer has been hard on my flowers with the extreme heat. Maybe this wonderful rain will help it out and I'll have some blooms on Saturday.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!!!

Menagerie of stories and unrelated pictures.

2009-08-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

So I haven't been posting, but I think it is because I have been so tired from my Charleston trip. I had a very nice time. However on the way back home through dreaded Atlanta airport, I was delayed and then Delta asked if anyone would volunteer their seat for $400 and a hotel room, plus some food vouchers.

Always willing to make a dollar, I volunteered. The $400 ended up 400 Delta dollars-which although not the same I will use none the less. The sweet, non-English speaking gate attendant gave me a list of not so hot hotels to stay, including the Red Roof Inn. I had never stayed in a Red Roof so I picked that one thinking I would only be there for 6 hours, how bad could it be?

Well, bad let me tell you. It started out with this annoying young man who was also staying in Atlanta on his way to OKC. He was about 20ish and thought it was great to tell me how much he hated living in OKC. "There's nothing to do" he kept repeating, even though, at first, I was going though my spill about everything there is to do. Finally I just told him he should move. This is when i found out that this boy, who was stoned, was in the air force and stationed here.

Okay, so at this point I could not wait to get anywhere that wasn't with this kid. We make it to the hotel shuttle area where I am repeatedly accosted by shuttle drivers ripping my voucher out of my hand and then trying to get me to go with them. Looking back I think they were trying to save my life, but at the time I was offended and mildly scared. Although, not as scared as I was once I reached the Red Roof Inn and walked inside.

I walked into a scene straight from the beginning of a horror film. "Young woman, nice jewelry, nice camera, computer, iphone-walks into skank hotel with huge skanky man behind counter staring at securing monitor flashing to all floors. Skinny Skinny unarmed security man in back ground watching TV, all in filthy dirty surroundings."

A record could of scratched when i walked in there. I get my key to my room and walk to the elevators thinking "Amber, quit being a snob. I'm sure this place is fine. You're over reacting because you just came from an Orient Point Hotel in Charleston". I'm scared as I get into the elevator, more scared when I step out on my floor and freaking out when I walk into my discussing hotel room with concave hooker beds. I immediately lock all locks on the door and start trying to find another hotel on my iphone. Fortunately, there was a Renaissance beaming at me across the highway.

Anyway, that was a nightmare.

I spent last week trying to recover.

Story 2.

Last week we had an appointment with a pediatrician for Ike. He was recommended by one of our friends who uses him. I had already looked him up and couldn't find anything bad about him-plus I trust my friend, so really we were just going so we could have a doctor for Ike.

Oddly- they call it a pre-natal visit even when you're not pregnant. Here's a run down of the visit.

Dr: (looking at me) "I guess your adopting"

Us: haha Yes

Dr: do you know anything about kids?

Me: No

Luke: Yes, well our friends have kids.

Dr: are you reading books about children?

Me: no

Luke: yes.

This is funny because the book he has read is titled "eat dirt" and about what to do with your child out side. I have actually read some adoption books as required by our agency but that is it.

Dr: Do you have any questions

us: no

Dr: most people ask me about.....

hahahhaha. I think he must have thought we were the most unprepared parents ever. I did ask him about the famed "Asian ear wax". He seemed impressed by that knowledge. We walked out of there feeling a little ashamed that we hadn't thought of any questions. We just wanted to see if we liked him as a person-which is normally how we do business anyway. :)

So, we have no other news about Ike. I emailed Dillon today concerned because we haven't heard anything for CIS and I'm worried they got stuck on the last name issue and then put it aside.

We did get in his G diapers that I ordered. They are interchangeable between disposable/ biodegradable flushable inserts and cloth diapers. I am very excited about these.

Charleston

2009-07-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

I'm in Charleston, SC for a conference. I didn't really look into Charleston before getting here so I didn't really know that much about it besides the mansions and various books I have read that are based here.

First off, Charleston in known for many things... 1) Fiery Ice Tea 2) She Crab Soup 3) Old Houses 4) Culinary Creations 5) Wrought Iron... I'm sure there are other things, I have only been here since 11 am

The above is an example of the beautiful wrought iron work that encompasses the city. I saw this by the ocean or river or whatever they call the water here.

I am excited to be able to try out different functions on my new camera. I haven't had a non-point and shoot since 35mm. It is different learning how to maneuver the aperture and shutter speed for me.

This is the Calhune (?) mansion. I took a tour of it today, reluctantly since it was $15. I thought that was a little high, but I was there and as a REALTOR I love to see houses and the way people live. This 25,000 (that's right) square foot home is still occupied. I single man lives here (hold up lady's, the look of his incredible taste in art and single life style imply he is giegh if not gay). The house was incredible. I learned that the Victorian style was too furnish a home with items bought when traveling. Wow! How knew Luke and I were Victorian? Incredible. :)

This home is something historic, but I can't remember. Everything in Charleston is something historic. You can move a house here but not demolish it.

This is the gardens for the mansion that is two pictures above. As previous blogs have illustrated, I am recently having trouble with picture placement and odd fonts with my blogging??

OH!! Another famous thing about Charleston is there baskets. This lady is demonstrating how to make them I want to buy one before I leave to be placed amongst my baskets from my previous travels. I don't have a purpose for these baskets, but I like to buy things...

Here, I am showing the boardwalk and the surrounding mansions, also playing with aperture. I chose this picture because it reminds me a old timey photos of Miami? I like that it is washed out.

This one is washed out too, but I can still see the water drops. Super cool to me. I love the palmetto fountain. It was called a water park. hehe. People were swimming in this sucker. If you are thinking it's not big enough to swim in you are right.

So, when I arrive in a new city I alway ask what I should do while I'm there. Everyone-EVERYONE suggested I take a carriage ride. I'm normally not into such things because they take too long and are full of unreliable advice. This was no different. I did get to see a lot of the City ,but I fill that if I had that hour back I could have seen more by walking. The tour guide was entertaining and full of information.

I also ask local where I should go eat and then ask the servers what I should eat when I get there. I had NO idea of the uniqueness of the food here. Seriously! I can't even tell you what I ate because I am pretty sure it was in a different language. I had never heard of most of these dishes and have loved everything I have had so far. I just wish that Luke was with me so that I could try more things.

Tomorrow I start my institute and then am running some "famous" bridge with this lady I met while at dinner. I am concerned about this run because I have not ran my normal 4 miles for over a month since I started the P90X challenge (which I may or may not have been blogging about-mainly facebook with that subject). Also, it is a bridge which assumes that it has a substantial hill in the middle. We in OKC do not have hills. I do not want to get out ran by anyone much less be a 50 year old woman. Although she looks to be in better shape, however I look to be better fed...

New Blog Name

2009-07-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

(me at the Kathy Griffin show!!! She rocks!)

Luke announced the other day that we were no longer the Corbin, Meeker-Harry household,

but now we are the Corbin, Meeker-Harry, Won household. At least for a while. Who thought this could get more complicated. I always knew I was going to keep my name. I have worked really hard as Amber Corbin and didn't want to have to start over as someone else, especially in a reputation driven career. Poor Luke was the kid in the 80's with two last names, I think he would change his if he didn't work all his life with that last name, too. So, with all the last names already, we can't leave our baby's last name out of the mix. hahahahaha.

(To my new internet friends, I kept my maiden name and Luke has a hyphenated last name. Little Ike will have his Korean name, Won, Shin until we formally adopt him here in Oklahoma and then he will simply

have one last name.)

Other than that.. I bought a new camera yesterday. I really like it. I haven't had a good camera since before the digital age. I took these last night. It shoots 4 shots a second! It also has a wider angle lens which will be good for shooting pictures of my houses.

My garden is not doing well because it has been over 100 all month or maybe longer. I hear on "You Bet Your Garden" that pollen fries over 95 . So I guess I won't have very much this year. I have the worlds biggest cucumbers but that are really bitter and gross. I have had a two big tomatoes but the bunnies got to them first. I do have some peppers but they're not ready and I have a few cantaloupes, but I'm afraid they aren't going to make it due to the overwhelming heat. I really think this is the hottest summer in my life time.

Hopefully soon I will have something interesting to talk about, but until then, you're stuck with bla...:)

I hope my readers are having a more exciting summer.

(I don't know why the formatting on my blogs have been so radically off! It I wasn't constantly putting off work I would spend more time fixing it)

Ike's First Video!

2009-07-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GliXihx0QE

Waiting

2009-07-10T08:50:00.000-07:00

So I had about a month where I wasn't constantly counting other peoples' timelines to try and figure out mine. Now I'm back to that. I REALLY hate not being able to plan things out and being completely out of the loop on what is going on and people who I will never know are in charge of my life.

This makes me extremely uncomfortable. I don't think I thought about all of this before we started this process.

Maybe I have just had too much time to think recently. I haven't been as busy as I was with work so I'm sure that is part of it.

Hopefully, we will get his I-171 back soon so Korea can start working on whatever they work on after that-either passport or emigration permission.

(Side note... I never knew why it was "emigration" instead of "immigration" so I just looked it up. USAGE To emigrate is to leave a country, esp. one’s own, intending to remain away. To immigrate is to enter a country, intending to remain there: : my aunt emigrated from Poland and immigrated to Canada.)

Any who.... I have to get ready to go sell a house. I'll start freaking out again latter. :)

Ike's Ziplock bag

2009-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

Here's Luke with all of the items we are trying to stick in Ike's 1 gallon ziplock bag

Here's Luke with all the items in the 1 gallon ziplock bag (minus 1 item).

Here is a picture of my parents and brother in Costa Rica.

e's fab o

My sweet angels!

Their preferred method of sleeping.

New Ike Pictures!

2009-06-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

We received new pictures of Ike today with some of the stuff we sent him. It is weird seeing him being active instead of just sitting in a chair like a little doll. He looks like he has grown a lot! I'm hoping we will get some new numbers on him and some video.

I woke up today really worried about him, so I was glad to get an update.

I am ready to go pick him up! It is going to be awhile so hopefully time will go by fast and Luke and I will just enjoy our time together as people without a child.

Although, we have been dog sitting my parents poodle, who is like an infant. Sculley and Mulder are definitely lap dogs, but they are too big to be carried. Fifi requires a lot more attention. She needs to be carried constantly, she won't go outside by herself, she has to be hand fed or she won't eat, and she eats on top of the counter to be away from our dogs. So we're most likely prepared for Ike. :)

I do have a feeling that little Ike is going to run me ragged. I can just see it now, calling Luke at work freaking out because Sculley won't stop barking, Mulder won't stop following me everywhere and Ike will not be put down or stop knocking stuff off shelves. It is going to be crazy! Am I ready for this? I think so?????

Things we have done since we found out about little Ike.

2009-06-09T13:56:00.001-07:00

One thing that I have probably done too much of is buy him clothes. The first thing I did after tell everyone about him was go to the mall with my mom and my friend and pick out clothes. My mom bought Ike all sorts of stuff. So far he has 2 board shorts, 1 rash guard, 2 hats, 3 pairs of pants, 2 t-shirts, 2 onesies, 1 fleece jacket, 1 sweater, 2 polos, 2 hoodie sweat shirts, 1 sweat pant, 3 pairs of socks, 1 windbreaker. That might be it.

I've been working in my garden, which is taken nicely. Thank you to KC for watering while I was away.

We have also filled out tons of paperwork in order to get him home. We did all of the paper work the day after we found out about him to expedite the process. I don't really think it will make any difference, but it might.

We have also been to Rhode Island. We went to see Luke's family. We stayed in Newport and were able to do a lot of the things we have never done before while we were there. We walked the historic cliff walk, which was awesome. The houses on the cliff walk are amazingly big. They were the summer homes of the super rich in the 1800's.

It was rainy. I like to say the Rhode Island is the state where summer never comes. Mainly because being from Oklahoma, I don't think it is summer till it is 90+ outside. In RI they lay out on the beach if it is 70. I would always sit with a hoodie one while locals were in the water. I don't think darker skinned people were meant to be in the cold.

We bought these jackets while we were there. I don't know when else I will need a rain jacket...maybe for our walks in the winter..but they sure were helpful this last weekend. I might have froze to death with out it.

We decided that we were going to have a "flat Ike", like "flat Stanley" Flat Stanley is a paper doll that a child will send with someone who goes one vacation. YOu take pictures of Flat Stanley at the Eiffel tower or at the statute of liberty. The kid can see where all these places are on the map. My cousin has a "flat Claire".

This is Luke and his 92 year old grandpa.

Luke's aunt made Ike this awesome quilt! It must have taken her forever.

If you zoom in here, you will be able to see a mini below this super huge ship. Who are these people that have cruise-ship type ships to themselves? And how many full time staff does it take to run one of these ships??

I like Newport, but am very excited to be back with regular summer weather.

One thing I have not done since we found out about Ike is work...

We Like Ike!

2009-06-03T19:53:00.000-07:00

So I have had people ask me the details of the day I found out about sweet little Ike....

Monday I was talking to our case worker from our adoption agency and I was of course doing a million things at once and talking on my sweet super tooth. I felt really weird about our conversation when I hung up, so I was kinda freaking out thinking "what have I said", "did I act like I wasn't 100% into this adoption". I tend to make semi inappropriate jokes when I'm nervous or thinking of other things. So, when I got back to my computer I wrote her an email telling her that I thought our conversation was odd and asking her to call me on Tuesday.

So now it's Tuesday.... I'm at my office trying to get about 20 hours of work done in one day, because Monday I went to my uncles funeral and I have to be gone all the rest of the week. My sweet case workers calls, but I'm not by my cell phone. The my Corbin Realty office calls me saying she has called on my voice mail and to call her in the next 15 minutes.

I call her and she says that if she was being "weird" it was because she has a referral for me! I started crying. She is so compassionate and deliberate with her words. I felt like it took hours for her to tell me about him, because I think and talk so much faster than the average person. I probably missed half of what she was saying because all I could think of was calling Luke.

She sent me his information and then I forwarded it to Luke. It took Luke's email the longest 4 minutes to load the email. He was dying on the other end.

I just left work because I knew I wasn't going to get anything done. Luke had to give a 3 hour presentation that same day so he had to stay and talked about FHA all afternoon.

I have tried to call everyone, but I can think of a few people I haven't called.

Thank you to all of you who have been so sweet and given us your blessings. We are very excited and cannot wait to bring little Ike home!!!!!

Meet Ike.

2009-06-02T20:10:00.001-07:00

This is little Ike Henry Harry. He was born 12-08-08. Yay! I'm really tired so I will post more tomorrow. I just know that my forum friends will love to see a picture and I couldn't wait to show him off!!

Mulder Mulder Mulder......

2009-05-27T19:24:00.000-07:00

Mulder has been getting in a lot of trouble lately. Mulder, on Saturday, was kicked out of his second day care. He apparently tried to attack and kill a labordoodle.

Last night he chased after a skunk, which sprayed him in the face at close range. And at close range to our house. It got in Mulder's eyes. I had a migraine and had gone to bed early. That woke me up. We washed him with: soap, mouth wash, baking soda, shampoo, conditioner, tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce, conditioner, that might be all. His eyes were so red and he was in a lot of pain.

We had to hold him all night long.

This morning we all smelled: Luke, me, the house, Mulder...I don't think Sculley did because she is smarter that the rest of us.

Luke had people comment about his smell at work.

I woke up with the same migraine and tried unsuccessfully to make an appointment for him to get a skunk bath at the same place that is unable to have him attend day care any more, but they were full :(.

I went to the vet, smelling like skunk, looking like skunk to buy dog food. They gave me a recipe for skunk remover: 1 quart hydrogen peroxide, 1 quart Dawn soap, 1/4 cup baking soda. I mixed it together. Stuck poor sweet Mulder in the tub and washed him with it. It striped the smell, skin and my finger nails off. He smells less bad.

The house still smelled. Luke came home early to help me from having a break down. We cleaned and scrubbed for hours! We did laundry from 7 AM to now (which is 9:35 PM). We went to dinner, came home-the house STILL SMELLS!

We have hardly any soft surfaces in our entire house. Those have been washed. I don't know what could be scrubbed or washed that hasn't already been cleaned?

I'm offensive......

Honey Pig, VA

2009-05-27T19:07:00.000-07:00

When I was in the DC area I was glad to be able to spend time with some of my many friends that live in the DC metro. My friends Natalie and Scott took me to one of their favorite restaurants called the Honey Pig somewhere in VA. Honey Pig is a Korean BBQ place that Scott LOVES! Scott has always been able to fine the best places to eat anywhere!

I think Natalie and Scott should move back to OKC. She was my best running buddy because she talks and does not listen to her ipod all the time! I miss them both very much. Natalie and I would run races and Luke and Scott would go eat and then meet us at the finish line. We were the perfect couple friends-Nat and I and borderline neurotic, Luke and Scott are very laid back and hungry. See! You should come home!

Garden Update...

2009-05-25T15:27:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everyone cares about my garden as much as I do. hehehehe. Anyway, the front yard is looking fabulous. My roses look great. My lilies are starting to bloom. The strawberries look like they are feeding every rabbit in OKC.

Soon, my elephant ears will be giant and almost up to the windows as will the canna lilies.

In the back we are growing onions, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, okra, herbs, cantaloupe, and one blue berry. We bought another blue berry bush today so maybe next year we will have more blue berries. My black berry bushes died during one of our many random late freezes we had this year..

So, our house is starting to look up to par with our last house. yay. It just takes a couple years for the garden to have to crazy over grown look that I'm going for.

Some highlights of my DC trip so far...

2009-05-14T18:16:00.001-07:00

Well here I am in DC attending the National Association or REALTOR Mid-Year conference. The conference has been terrific. Way better than I could have imagined. We have had a summit with real estate experts such as Alan Greenspan, Shaun Donovan, and Sheila Bair among others.

I also went to talk to four of our state representatives, Sullivan, Coburn, Fallin and Inhofe. This picture was in Coburn's office. I had lots of time to think about how funny it was since he was 30 minutes late to talk to us and then bum rushed us out the door.

Jackson Pollack (I have no idea why this is underlined and I can't make it stop) is Luke's favorite painter. Also, Olivia the pig's. I had this picture taken for Luke and then emailed it to him. He asked me to steal it. I'm usually against such things but I did try and see if it would fit under my shirt. No luck.

My favorite is this one of me "in" the Oval Office. One day.

I have had fun being by myself. Last weekend was trying at my buddy's house and I have had some incidences here that I would like to forget. But I love DC and am happy to be back-walking to everything, being part of the city.

I started out walking in low heels. I don't know what I was thinking when I packed my bags. Then I was wearing flat pointy toe shoes. Finally, I bought some shoes that I might have to wear everyday to make up the cost and then a more expensive pair (why go out easy). However, by the time I had proper walking shoes my feet were torn up! I would take a picture but it is disgusting. Think "run fat boy run".

Tomorrow I have three seminars and then am going to VA to meet my friends and go eat at their favorite Korean restaurant. Then on Saturday I'll be off to OKC. Hopefully, all the bad weather will be gone when I get home. I brought the wind here with me, so hopefully I will leave it here and be able to have nice patio drinks with my friends. Ready to be with Luke again. I have been spending a lot of time alone.

boopoo

2009-05-06T20:28:00.001-07:00

I don't know why, but lately things that normally don't bother me are making me really irritated. Like today I was so anxious and irritated at an inspection that was taking FOR EVER. Normally I can just sit around and chat with who ever happens to be present. But today I kept checking my watch and could not wait to get out of there.

Even yesterday at Luke's birthday, before everyone got there I was so anxious and irritated ( I guess I need a better vocabulary). I could not wait for my beer to get there so I would calm down.

I am never like this. Normally, if I have been working out I feel fine. KC thinks that it is because I am focused so much on this whole baby thing that I can't concentrate on anything else. She is probably right. I check the forum and the blogs a billion times a day waiting to see if anyone (people I have most likely never met) has any good news related to babies. What? Who is this person?

Or maybe it is because I have too many different things going on. I'm just having a hard time keeping it together (clients-do not worry...). I keep forgetting things and I'm not calling back some people. That is something I never do unless they are trying to sell me something....:)

I'm really not trying to be a poo or have any poor me's. I'm in a small funk.

Maybe I just need some Amber time. I haven't got to have as much as I prefer lately. I have had something every night and ever day for many months.

Which brings me to my next worry. When am I going to start to feel normal? I feel like Luke and I are both just sitting around waiting for this unknown child. When this child is revealed to us we are going to sit around and wait to go pick him up, then we are going to have to recreate normal. How does all this happen? How am I going to juggle all my jobs and hobbies and add something major into the mix? If I can barely keep it together now, how is this going to work? I know that people do it all over the world, but I'm concerned. One thing that will have to happen is that I will have to stop working so much. And probably stop sleeping so much. Basically, if I did stop sleeping so much I would get a lot more done and be way less stressed out.

I had a law school professor who once told my first year class that to be successful as an attorney one must function on little to no sleep. That was how she did it. I wanted to ask how she ended up teaching?? I never liked her.

In other news...I finally figured out how to french braid just my bangs and put my hair up in a cute "Carly" pony tail and then found two gray hairs and another later in the night.

I purchased skin bleaching cream to battle my sunspots and it made my cheeks look like a rag doll.

Good news is that I have been taking vitamins lately and my nails have started to look good again, which concerns me about my previous vitamin deficiency?

My buddies did come over tonight and that was really nice. I had a great time and I love them.

I'm rambling.