It's 8:00 and all is well!!!

So... there really isn't much going on in the life of Malone and Brittany so far this week. I keep anxiously checking the mail every day as soon as I get home from work just HOPING to see that adoption approval letter. Of course, it's only been about a week from our home study so this anxiety is a little premature. But try telling the little butterflies in my heart that. Trust me, they don't listen. What can I say, the little buggers are punks! Anyhow, I'm really hoping it will come by the end of next week at least. Wouldn't that be an amazing birthday present? Oh yeah... that's a major hint. Our birthdays are coming up! Mine is the 5th and Malone's is the 9th. We're getting old!

For randomness' sake... I'm currently watching The Biggest Loser. For those of you out there who are also fans of the show, don't you think the background music is a TAD melodramatic for the situation? Seriously, you'd think they were writing music for a World War II movie or a soap opera. It's quite humorous. In our house we like to make up words to the music that go something along the lines of "Oh my... look at... his man boobs!!!" or something else equally as obnoxious.

So... I guess I'll leave you with that wise and inspirational thought...

We passed!

Today was our home visit with our caseworker! It was pretty relaxed, it only took about 15 minutes. Basically, I just took her on a tour of our apartment and showed her all the safety features of our apartment. I showed her where we have our fire extinguisher, carbon monoxide detector, and all of our smoke alarms. I showed her where we keep our cleaning supplies and medications. It was really simple and easy! And... we passed! YAY! Now we just wait for our caseworker to catch up with the BIG supervisor so he can sign our paperwork and we'll be approved! Our caseworker told us that we have a really good profile. She said that our paperwork sticks out amongst the other couples' paperwork because we were so personal and funny. She said that she honestly feels like we'll probably get chosen quickly because we did such a good job of being honest and giving a good picture of our personalities in the profile! (Notice all the exclamation points in the post... I'm excited.) That was really nice of her to reassure us because I've been so nervous that nobody will want to choose us. Anyway, I'll be anxiously checking the mailbox every day waiting for the approval notification. Don't worry, you guys will be among the first to know.

Inauguration day

I watched today as President Barack Obama was sworn into office. I couldn't pass this historical moment up without saying that I am proud to live in a country that can lay aside the racial discrimination of the past. Although I don't agree with all of President Obama's ideals, I am glad that today a big step has been taken in the efforts of equality. I also think this is a big step forward in the acceptance of multi racial families because President Obama comes from a mixed race family. Thank goodness!

Some adoption profile pictures

At Yellowstone National Park

We make hot cowboys! (To be kosher, should that be cowpeople?)
It's over three years later, and we're still madly in love.

In Nauvoo, Illinois you HAVE to eat fudge, and go on a wagon ride.
This is at an amazing park near where we're from.

One of our handmade chairs. Malone cuts them, and I paint them.
Malone is the most tolerant hubby, and I was VERY bored.
Malone sporting his occasional goatee at his brother's wedding.
Just us. Our life is just normal. But we love it.

One of our trips back to beautiful Nauvoo where we were married.
We have a tradition of making a Haunted gingerbread house for Halloween. This year's was patterned off the Phantom Manor in Disneyland Paris.

Hard at work in our home office grading his students' papers.

Malone has a real talent for woodworking. He made this clock by hand!
We were so lucky to walk together for graduation. It was a big day!
Us at my brother's wedding. It was so cold!
One of my many plants I "rescued" from Wal-Mart.
A recent family picture.
Us at this year's corn maze/haunted forest.

We love to cook together!

One of my three Christmas villages. (Help! They're taking over!)

We love playing games together and with our family.

We love to spoil our nieces and nephews. This was taken at the zoo in St. Louis Missouri.

Christmas 2008. Christmas is my FAVORITE holiday, I always go all out.

So these are just the pictures we have on there for now. This spring/summer we plan to update the photos with our spring/summer hobbies of camping, biking, going to the lake, swimming, fireworks, etc... Can you tell I'm excited for it to get warm again? :)

Feeling the crunch, advice needed

A couple of things. Our home visit with our caseworker has been rescheduled for next Wednesday. This is both a good and a bad thing. It's good because it gives us a little extra time to get ready. I know our caseworker doesn't expect us to have it white glove clean, but I can't help it. I'm still going to scrub around our toilet with a toothbrush. Oh well! I guess that's pretty par for the course. It's bad though because it's just another week of nervousness. But this is the LAST step before approval! Yay! It will be such a relief to be finally approved. I guess I'm just anxious to get to work spreading the word. I've already started, but I really want to create and publish our pass along cards so I can get them sent out! It's hard feeling powerless, but for the moment that's exactly what I'm feeling.

We're also feeling the monetary crunch right now trying to prepare for the adoption. We're saving my entire income aside from what we pay in tithing (a donation of ten percent of our income to our church). But it seems like everybody is wanting a piece of us lately. So... we are thinking of ways to raise additional money for adoption expenses. In my September 16th post I talked about the rocking chairs we make for children. They are completely handmade. Hubby cuts, stains, and varnishes all the pieces. I burn our logo into the bottom of the seat, and hand paint the picture and name. We really think this could be a good way for us to fundraise. So the question is... how much do you think we could sell those chairs for? Each chair costs about $20.00 in materials, and represents about 8 hours of time. I just need a realistic idea of how much those chairs could sell for. We're also thinking of doing a yard sale. We have a friend who did this and it was extremely successful. They basically asked everyone they know to donate their gently used items they didn't want anymore. Then they sold those items. The money they raised is going towards adopting their two boys from Ghana.

What do you guys think? Any other ideas?

Our adoption blog

The time has finally come for me to set up a blog that is completely dedicated to our adoption journey. The blog address is http://maloneandbrittanyadopt.blogspot.com. Obviously it isn't too far along yet, but I thought I would start circulating the word so that you can all help. How might you ask? For now, the answer to that is very simple. Just tell everybody you know about our adoption blog. Link to it and have all your friends and family link to it. As soon as we're approved, we'll be sending out pass along cards with our information on it, but until you receive those this is the best thing you can do. Pretty much all of my adoption associates tell me that networking is the key to finding the right birth mother. YOU can be my network. Please help us so that we can finally fulfill our dream of being parents. Thank you in advance! You guys are great!

Here... We... Go!!!

Things have been so crazy around here lately that I don't even have the faintest idea of where to start. But I'll give it a go anyway.

We celebrated our third anniversary about 3 weeks ago. It was the best! That day after work we drove to the hospital to visit my grandma. She was sick, but feisty as ever. When hubby walked into the room, she shot a "spit wad" (actually, it was just a Q-tip) at him. Just imagine my 77 year old grandmother lying in bed preparing for a quadruple bypass, and her main occupation is shooting spit wads at her visitors! Seriously, my grandma rocks! After the visit, we went to a really great restaraunt. While you're eating dinner, you get to watch an indoor cliff diving show. The hispanic food was pretty darn good too. After that, we went to the temple to see the gorgeous Christmas lights. That was the end of day one. Fast forward to Friday. We got the chance to rent a themed suite at a pretty amazing hotel. The room was themed after an old fashioned drive in movie theater. They had an "aaaahhhhhh that's comfortable" bed in the back of an antique pick up truck facing a huge movie screen. We watched a few movies that we've been meaning to catch up on, and it was so fun! Also included in the suite was movie candy, popcorn, a hot dog machine, an unlimited soda fountain, cheesecake, sparkling apple cider, and a full hot breakfast made to order. Of course, there was also a huge jacuzzi. We loved it so much that we want to go again next year!

Okay, after that we left to make the LONG drive to hubby's parents' house for Christmas. While there, we both caught the flu. That part of our vacation was MISERABLE, but other than that it was super fun! We stayed about a week, then made the LONG drive back home.

Of course, my husband is so dedicated that he showed up at work the very same day we got back in town. Plus, he's excited that he got into the lab that he wanted, and was eager to make a good impression on his new P.I. He's loving his work and often jokes that if I'm not careful, he'll drag our kids to the lab with him someday and turn them all into nerds. I laugh and then say NO WAY! I, on the other hand, was glad to still have a few days off before going back to work.

New Years Eve was pretty fun. I spent it with a few of my siblings playing games and eating too much junk. I, like most other people out there, thought "I may as well enjoy the good food tonight before I start my diet tomorrow!" Don't laugh, I know you thought the SAME thing! Admit it! And guess what? I DID start my diet! We've been working out every day, and making healthier food choices. My proud report? I lost five pounds over the holidays. Interesting tidbit: the average american gains about 7 pounds over the holidays. I am not the statistic! Wahoo!

Okay, a few days later the bad luck begins. I get food poisoning. From what? I have no idea. Nobody else got it. At least it only lasted a day. So I spent a lot of time over my vacation worshiping the porcelain god. Yuck! Then my niece was baptized. We're so proud of her! She asked hubby and I to speak at her baptism. Of course, we're headed on our way over there at ten minutes until the time it starts so I think, "Yes! We'll be a couple minutes early!" I should never have thought that.... we hear a popping noise and low and behold a flat tire! Of course, we're dressed up. Hubby in his suit, and me in a skirt and blouse without a coat because I had forgotten it. It was a balmy 18-ish degrees outside. So there we are in the I-hop parking lot trying to change a flat tire in our Sunday clothes. So we get it changed and hurry off to the baptism. We got there ten minutes late. Of course, the door we went to was locked. So we run around the building looking for an unlocked door. Of course, the sidewalk is covered in ice and I'm carrying everything because hubby's hands are covered in grease. I should have expected it to happen... I should never run in stilettos... on the ice... You guessed it! I pull a superman across the sidewalk. Everything in my arms goes flying and my whole front side is covered in ice. And I'm late. So we get to the baptism and everything goes well from there. I had to work that night and of course, there were huge nasty messes to clean up. What else should I have expected? After hubby picked me up, we run to the gas station. Hubby fills the tank up and we go to leave... the car won't start. We had a dead as a doornail battery! It will barely even take a jump, so we know we have to get a new one. By this time it was 8:30. Luckily, we make it to Wal-Mart (where else?) so hubby can get the old battery out, buy a new one, and install it. Guess what? The old battery is rusted into place... hubby can't get it out without certain tools... flush more money into the Wal-Mart drain. All this time, we have people waiting for us at our house to play games. They're all eating dinner and playing games and generally partying it up. I'm almost in tears at this point. Hubby finally gets the dumb battery out and manages to install the new one in about two seconds. I got home, and crashed. The following Monday, I had to go back to my "real" job.

That brings us to this week. There are a few other crazy things that have happened since my last detailed post. Here is the good news as of this week: My grandma's surgery went AWESOME and her recovery has been even BETTER! She's already out of the hospital and into a kind of intermediate care facility where they're helping her prepare to go back home. Hopefully she'll be doing that very soon. I told you she was feisty, didn't I? Our other piece of big news is that our caseworker contacted us to set up our final appointment before approval! Basically, she'll just look through our home to be sure it's a good, safe environment for a child. That will tentatively happen next Wednesday. Here's hoping we're approved before February! Wouldn't that be a great birthday present?!?

Long time, no post...

Sorry guys! I know it's been forever since my last post, but I have been crazy busy. I'll post more of an update later, but until then just know that I am here and more will be coming soon.