Thank you to everyone for advice about the cake.  I am going to be practicing for the next month.  I already told my coworkers that they are my tasters. 

I’m going to be spending a few days with an old high school friend of mine.  My husband is staying home.  I’m taking Chloe with me.  This is the first time my husband will be fully alone without us for so many days since Chloe was born.

Steven: What day are you leaving?  Thursday?  Or Wednesday?

Me: Wednesday night.

Steven: That’s . . . soon. .  .I’m going to be all alone.

Me: Oh, it’s okay.  I already talked to your sister and she said that you can come over and play with Michael.

Steven: . . . . . . . . .did you just. . . .did you just set me up on a playdate with my NEPHEW!!

(***Now.  It took a while before I could stop laughing, but in my defense, I only did it because I didn’t want my husband to be lonely.)

I’m throwing a big anniversary dinner for my parents 30th anniversary next month.  I’ve been toying with the idea off and on about making their cake myself.  It would be a really special touch if I could make it cute.  It’s a month away so it’s getting to the point where I need to either find a nice cake place and order them a cake - or fully committ to making it myself. 

There will be 40-50 people there, and I want the cake to have at least 2 tiers not a big rectangle cake. 

Here’s the other thing.  I’ve never baked a cake that wasn’t out of a box.  So it may very well be quite an undertaking.  And I don’t want fondant on the cake, because although fondant = pretty, fondant also = gross.

I want the cake to look fancy and cute and somehow have something representative of their 30 years together.  I’m having a dinner party with some friends next weekend and I can practice my cake-making skills with them. 

I will have to share my parent’s love story soon, but until then - any advice on the cake-making?

 

 

 

Hope everyone’s weekend was great!

I considered not sharing this, but I got our stats in today. Every month we get an email from our coordinator telling us how many times our adoption letter has been sent out. For June, our letter has been sent out a whooping. . .

*drum roll please*

. . .0 . . .times.

Zero. None. Nada. Absolutely nothing. Not even once. Yeah, I’m a little cranky mixed up with a whole lot of sadness about it.

After a good cry I sat down and poured over all the info that I had. There are a couple of things that we can do that will definitely up the number of times our letter will go out - and seriously, we can only go UP from here, right? One change I can’t say because I haven’t even discussed it with my husband yet. The other is working on perfecting our website. There are a lot of requests for specific letters of PAPs found via the website links.

Hopefully we’ll be adding a lot and updating our website this next week. Then next month we can see how that was for us. I know that it will happen. I do wish for the right situation. However, for that to happen, our letter does have to actually be seen.

We have been enjoying have a kitten for the past couple of weeks. 

She’s doing well.  She uses the litter box, only had one mistake (that I’ve found).  She’s eating well, drinking.  She misses us when we’re out and when we get home she is all over us, showing us love.  She’s playful and she’s a master at cuddling.

We have one problem.

People food.  This kitten goes nuts when there’s people food around.  The first day that Chloe was with her we told Chloe that the kitten is not to have any people food.  We told her that it would make the kitten sick so I’m pretty positive that she hasn’t fed the kitten any.  As far as I know she hasn’t had as much as a lick of people food since she’s been with us.

It is bad.  That kitten will do anything to get ahold of some of our food.  At one point she jumped on me and tried to get into my mouth!  She jumps all over us to get at food.  She will try to go into the trash can to get food.  It is insane when she sees that we have food.

We have tried to move her whenever she gets near food.  We have tried to us air cans.  And she always comes back.  She does not relent as long as there is still food around.  I make sure that we feed her and she is done eating before we even take any food out to eat.  It has gotten to the point where we have to lock her in the bathroom every time we eat.  She can’t stand being locked in there.  She wails like crazy, and it makes us crazy because then we feel like we have to hurry up and eat.  I haven’t enjoyed many meals for the past two weeks.

 

Any ideas on what we can do?

You ever comment on a blog or post on a forum and afterwards want to bang your head on the wall because - why in the world would I say that?

I

 

 

 

 

 just want to crawl into a hole and hide. . .

I looked at our website hits for our adoption website.  The curiousity overtook me and the next thing I knew I was looking at our stats.  For June we had 130 unique visitors.  I wonder, though, how many of those are PAPs.  I have to admit that I click quite often on the other PAP webites just to check them out and check out their website. 

Next week we should get the stats on our hard copy letter and how many of those have gone out in June.

So far the wait is okay.  It has only been a month, though I do jump every time the phone rings.  :)  The only calls we’ve received have been requests to book a room at a hotel and requests for bringing vehicles into the US from Canada.  Random.

I tend to not mention religion much on my blog.  I tend to not intertwine my religion with the rest of my life much either.  Religion and faith are deeply personal and something that I don’t take very lightly, which is why I am very careful about when it’s appropriate to discuss.

My father is Roman Catholic.  He was raised Roman Catholic, but isn’t currently practicing.  He stopped going to church before I was born.  He has no problem with the faith, but with the church.  When my parents got married the church discriminated against my mom and he has never really forgiven them for that.  He still believes and has faith, but he doesn’t attend church. 

My mother is Buddhist and still attends temple.  There are different types of Buddhism.  My mom follows a form of Mahayana Buddhism which includes belief in Boddhisatvas.  Boddhisatvas could be similar to Saints I think.  They help those of us on Earth; there are many of them; and they each have their own purpose.  We attend a temple devoted to Guan Yin, who is the Boddhisatva that is linked with compassion.  We believe in God.  When I pray I pray to God or to Guan Yin.  Usually if I feel I need guidance or help I pray to Guan Yin for help. 

Growing up I didn’t attend church and I didn’t attend temple.  My parents were very open with me about faith and about my path.  They always instilled in me that the religious path I choose is my own and I was free to discover what that was.  They preferred that I wait until I was older to decide.  I began to attend temple when I was 10.  It was something that they weren’t going to stop me on, but that they wished I had waited longer to do. 

It was very important to them that I discover what my beliefs are myself and they always encouraged me to attend services for any church or religion.  I took them up on it and went to several throughout junior high and high school.  I was always searching, knowing that the path I chose was my own.  Everyone has their own path, and mine is not yours as yours is not mine.  I view the path more as a way to live on earth than a path to get into heaven.  I think that is why I don’t believe that we can be right or wrong in following any path.

I always went back to temple.  Always.  I always felt at home when attending temple.  That was just a part of finding my way. 

My husband was raised Catholic, worked for a Baptist church, and has explored other religions including Zen Buddhism.  He currently attends temple with me, however, that is in part because he loves the food. 

Chloe attends temple with me and my mom, so I’m doing things a little differently than my parents did.  All of my children will attend temple, and when they are older I will want them to explore their own path and discover what it is they believe.  Having my children attend temple is partly to expose them to what I believe and the path that I have choosen for myself.  Their path will be choosen by them later on in life, hopefully after they have fully explored their beliefs and the different beliefs that other religions and faiths hold.  Another reason why I want them to experience temple with me is to expose them to a religion that does not follow the mainstream beliefs because I want them to develop a respect for it.  I don’t want them to fear what is different in regards to their own religious beliefs and those that the people of this world follow.  That is very important to me, that Chloe and my future children can respect the other paths, the religions of the world and not fear that which is different.

It is what my parents gave me.  Even though they believed differently, they always showed respect for one another’s beliefs.  I don’t think that my dad agrees with my mom’s religion and vice versa, but they can respect one another and respect that they have different paths.

My parents moved into their current house about 6 years ago.  They had a small pigeon problem back when they first moved in.  The pigeons would hang out on the roof of the house, and make a mess on the roof, on the stairway, on the back porch, on the front walkway, etc.  It got progressively worse as the years passed and it has gotten to be absolutely ridiculous.  There are so many pigeons, the neighbors feed the pigeons and bring even more pigeons, the mess of bird sh*t around the house and everywhere is just disgusting.  It’s filthy.

My parents have tried everything they could think of.  They put thousands of dollars worth of spikes on the roof and windowsills.  They bought a machine that makes a sound like a large bird that I guess is supposed to scare the pigeons.

The last bit of news they heard from some company that sells things to get rid of pigeons is that as long the pigeons babies are on the roof, the pigeons are staying.  My dad spent all day today working on the roof and has so far found dozens of pigeon families, nests, and too many to count pigeon babies and eggs.

And by the way, pigeon babies - not the most attractive babies in the animal kingdom.  Not only are they not cute, but man do they stink.  Wow.  It was awful taking those pictures because I could smell them.

Hopefully this will work and the pigeons will be gone soon.  I hate the idea of being cruel to them, but honestly all they have done is cause problems for my parents.