April has just about come and gone! How in the world has almost an entire month gone by with no post?? Well, it's been quite the busy month! However, I don't see May and June really slowing down that much. So here's what we've been up to lately:
We wrapped up our tax season at the VITA site. Our site coordinator was hoping that we would complete around 343 returns total so that we would have a 25% increase from last year and we had over 350 so we reached her goal! I enjoyed my time there and learned a lot. Depending on the kid situation and how things are going next year, I'd like to do it again. We shall see. We have a wrap up party/cookout this weekend to discuss what went right, wrong, and what we'd like to see changed for next year.
We went down to Houston and Galveston on April 9th/10th. Clint competed in Ironman 70.3 Galveston while I hung out with my best friend in Houston. Clint did really well I thought, but he was a little bummed that he didn't break 5 hours (he came in 5:01 and some change and it was crazy windy. Close enough in my book!). I'm just glad he didn't have any major catastrophes as the craziest things seem to happen in his big races...like getting a rock IN his foot and having to go to the ER afterwards to get it removed (he ran the entire 13.1 miles with it in his foot too) or crashing on the bike during a water bottle hand off. Of course, he didn't quite make this race injury free I'd say as he came home with one NASTY sunburn. I enjoyed my time with my best friend and her 2 year old twin boys. I also got to go to a going away party for some friends who are moving to NYC.
I went home to Abilene for part of this Easter weekend to get a crib! Pretty excited about that! Definitely makes things seem more real with that thing sitting in the garage. I had a great visit with my family and got to share in some of the Easter activities with my niece, like dyeing Easter eggs. My mom and I also went fabric shopping for the nursery. I found some fabric that I LOVED at Hancocks, but they didn't have enough. We looked around at other places, but that was still my favorite. I looked for it here in Longview, but they didn't have it. However, they did have it online so I ordered it there! I'm so excited that my mom is doing the bedding and curtains for the nursery. I want them to have something homemade and my mom is awesome at sewing...wish I knew how! I came back home Saturday evening so that I could attend church service on Easter and work in the 3 year olds class during the 11 am service. I love little kids in their Easter finest, adorable! Clint and I also managed to finish priming the nursery room. Now for paint! I've decided on the colors so now just a matter of finding the next window of time to paint it.
We also wrapped up our project for Leadership Longview. Our project day was on April 14th and we had perfect weather for it! Such a fun day. I'll take playing in the dirt any day over sitting in an office! :) The ribbon cutting was the following week on the 20th and we were greeted with a surprise. See, we installed a new greenhouse, garden, flower beds, sitting areas, etc., however, we did not raise enough money to have the place resodded. So, we did the next best thing and seeded it. However, that meant we wouldn't have grass growing by ribbon cutting, but the rest of it looked great. Well, the landscape architect who had been helping us took a look at it the day after project day and was displeased. He had his guys come in there and sod it and replaced our puny trees with much bigger trees. It was awesome! And the ribbon cutting was great, the members of the ARC LOVED their new outdoor area and garden. They were so excited to show it off and would come up and hug us. I think it will be great therapy for them. Graduation day is May 3rd and then this class is officially over. I'm sad and relieved at the same time. I loved getting to know this group and learned SO much, but I'll be honest and say I'll be glad for the break from it all too.
Work has been pretty stressful this month with my boss being out almost the entire month due to a trial in Dallas. The trial itself is pretty scary (won't go into details here) and not having my boss here has put quite the strain on things here at work. I will be so glad once he is back.
On the adoption front, things had been quiet for a few weeks. Almost felt like they forgot about us, however, of course we still got the info in the mail that there was yet ANOTHER 6 hour class that we have to take in May. Well, I finally got an e-mail from Buckner last Thursday. I thought I had done so well going down our list of things we had to turn in. Well, I was given another long list of things needed. Needless to say, we are no where close to a home study like I had thought, which is fine. We really want to wait until after our vacation in October before we take in a child so we have plenty of time. I am somewhat annoyed though that some of the things on the list (like the will and life insurance) I was specifically told could wait until after things progressed towards adoption. Now, they say it has to be done before the home study. Had I known, I would have been working on that already rather than putting it on the back burner. Those things will take a little bit of time, as they are not things you can/should whip out overnight. Again, not really upset and I know this is only the beginning of things that I am going to have to just go with the flow and not get worked up over. Anyway, so now I have a new list to work through. This time I won't be fooled into thinking that we are close to a home study once it's complete though. Bring it on Buckner (the system), cause you're gonna have to do a lot more to wear me down! Now I've got much more time to get the nursery just how I want it for them to see :)
As you can see, I think we've finally officially decided to wait until November before we are open to taking in a child. We have quite the schedule this summer and early fall (our last season of being selfish and doing what we want before our lives take a 180). Then we'll go from there. If we get a call before the end of the year and I'm still working, we'll evaluate the situation as to whether we can put them in day care for a few short weeks or if it's possible for me to go ahead and quit a few weeks early. I know that several family members are frustrated with us taking so long, but we've got plenty of time to be parents :)
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