Valentine's Day (and an adoption update)

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope everyone had a great day celebrating their loved ones. Shawn surprised me a day early with a beautiful bouquet of roses delivered to my work and then on the morning of the 14th I got a bag of Jelly Belly's with only my favorite flavors inside! This way I never have to worry about accidentally putting a coffee or cinnamon one in my mouth! YUCK!! I also surprised Shawn with a juggling kit. A little known fact is that Shawn is quite the juggler! It came with balls, rings, pins, scarves, and a spinning plate. We have had a great time putting on little circuses around the house! We ended the evening with a great dinner at the local restaurant Avenue 805. They were having what they called "Cheap Valentine's Date Night" and featured a 3 course meal that ended with Smore's nachos...delicious! All in all, this year's Valentine's celebration was a hit.

On the adoption front, we had our home visit this week. I totally went overboard cleaning and getting the house ready for what turned out to be a really easy visit. Our social worker only spent a few minutes checking the house for the things that were required (smoke alarms, fire extinguisher, medicine and cleaning supplies out of the reach of curious little hands) and we spent the rest of the time (about 2 hours) answering questions about ourselves. Everyone likes to talk about themselves, so it went by really fast and was really easy. Shawn also had his individual interview on Friday so he is done with his part of the home study...lucky guy! My individual interview is scheduled for the first Tuesday in March. Our home study should be complete by the end of March and then we will just wait for the agency to tell us we are close enough to the top of the list to starting working on our dossier...hopefully sometime this fall.

Ski Trip

Shawn and I went with my parents last weekend to Showshoe Mountain, WV for a short ski vacation. The trip had been planned for several months and we were all really looking forward to it...that is until the Friday before we left when I came down with the flu!! I ended up at the doctor's office on Saturday morning with a 103.4 temperature. Fortunately, the doctor sent me home with some good medication and we decided to continue with our weekend plans. We all drove up on Saturday afternoon. Mom cooked us some yummy chili on Saturday night for dinner since I still didn't feel like going out. Sunday morning Shawn, mom and dad decided to venture out to the slopes. I was still quite content being left in the condo since I felt like I'd been run over by a truck and it was really windy with lots of snow coming down! I did give skiing a try on Sunday afternoon, but quickly ended up back at the condo enjoying the hot tub instead. We went into the village on Sunday night to do a little shopping and have some dinner. We stopped by an outdoor fireplace to get a few minutes of warmth, but ultimately decided to just go back to our condo and build our own fire we could enjoy all evening. I woke up feeling a ton better on Monday and the weather was beautiful...sunny and warmer...so we all went out and did some great skiing. When it was time to check out, we still weren't ready to leave, so we loaded up the car with our stuff and went back to the slopes. The last picture is of my mom and dad on the ski lift in front of us. We skiied most of the day and then enjoyed a very scenic ride home...I'm pretty sure my dad took every "short-cut" from West Virginia to Richmond! Even though I was sick the whole weekend, it was a great time for the four of us to get out and enjoy each other and nature.

SNOW!! (and an adoption update)

So...I know it wasn't much snow, but it was more snow than I have seen around here in a long time! And if you know Shawn and me, you know that we love snow!! There was a small snowstorm forecasted for Saturday afternoon, but then on Friday night they changed the forecast, saying the weather was going to go further south and east. Needless to say, we were very disappointed. But while doing some spring cleaning, I looked out the window to see quite a bit of snow falling. It snowed most of the afternoon and evening and we were very excited to go out walking in the crisp weather. Too bad it all melted on Sunday:(

Also, we had our first meeting with our social worker on Tuesday. This is formally called our home study, but only one of the meetings is actually at our home. We were both a little nervous, but there was no reason for that! It started off with us asking questions based on a packet of information that we read and then for the final hour or so, we talked about the adoption process, the risks, fees, things to do and things to look forward to. Overall, it was a very informative meeting. We really like our social worker...she is young, laid-back, and very easy to talk to. We will meet with her again (at our house this time) on February 12th. This is the meeting where it will be more like an interview...but I won't get nervous about that until it is a lot closer!

Couch Potatoes

Things have been really quiet around here since we returned from Missouri. We aren't complaining, though! For most of the fall, we were so busy we didn't know if we were coming or going...so this is a welcome change. Time has been spent watching football (boo, Patriots!!) and going for evening walks around our neighborhood. It has been unseasonably warm here which has been helpful in getting us out of the house to walk off some of those extra Christmas pounds. We just seem to be lacking any enthusiasm to do some things around the house that need to get done. We would love to hear what everyone has been doing to keep busy this month...maybe it will give us some ideas to spice things up!