I'm getting behind in my thank yous...

I haven't blogged in awhile. A lot has happened this week. Yesterday and today, we got 2 great letters. One from a former employer, Don. Absolutely stunning writing. He is perhaps one of the most sincere and caring people that we know. Also, we got a really fun & cute letter from Tim & Vanessa with baby stickers all over it. (I think Vanessa had something to do with the decoration!)

We received - in the past week - letters from Carolyn, who I participate in an art event with as well as from a co-worker Ruth Ann, my Aunt Sandra, our friend Sara, Sara's husband Mike, and neighbors Jacqueline & Daniel. We have a couple emailed to us too - one from Milli & Scott (former co-worker of both of us and her husband who we've gotten to know over the years) and Karla & Steve - my 2nd "family" growing up. They were my next door neighbors and their children were like brothers & a sister to me. Also, Steve married us!

Each letter is distinct. Some identify similar traits (which must mean those are true!) Any time we get a letter and read it... it helps a bit. We definitely feel this missing piece in our lives (that a child will one day fill) and these letters of support help ease the emptiness.

I talked to my friend Susan today who blogs too.... and - duh - she told me how to post pics. It's so easy. Why didn't I notice it before?! I don't know if I can go back and add pics to the blog... but here are some things that I wanted to post previously. A pic of my favorite shoes mentioned earlier, my favorite slippers that I "must" wear as soon as I get home, and of our pond and plants.

I do have more (serious) stuff to write about that, but I'm going to run for now.
c

It's been awhile since I wrote...

Not much has happened with the family stuff since I wrote last.
I've had an unusual month or two. I went to Alabama for work... the following week, I went to Asheville with Todd. This week, I went to New Bern NC for work. I'm in town next week... then I go to Savannah for work. I'm in town for a week, then I'm in Charlotte for work. I'm actually a little tired of travelling already!!

My co-worker, Marisa, and I had a good time in New Bern, though. It's a cute little historic sort of-coastal town (it's just inland of the Outer Banks & is on a convergence of rivers that come together. It was the first town in NC... and it is the birthplace of Pepsi). We went for the AIA (American Institute of Architects) conference. We flew up on Sept 11. Got there mid-day & had a great lunch (seafood, of course). Marisa slept all afternoon. I laid out on a bench by the water & read for awhile. Then, I took a walk along the river's edge (they have a public area built out there). There was a red & white bi-plane doing flips in the air & diving towards the ground / pulling up before he got too close. (I HATE THAT!!!). It was getting dark, so I woke Marisa / we grabbed a couple of apps & ate at "the deck" a restaurant connected to our hotel... and we did work on our Presentation for Thursday.

I loved our hotel room. We were on the bay overlooking the marina. We were the adjacent building to the conference center. Everything was walk-able. We got up early / did the full-day training on Wednesday (which went really well) / then came back to the room to chill a bit. Marisa slept & I went for another walk. It was kinda funny - I ran into several of the students from our class that day. It was like I was living in that small town / knew a lot of people I saw on the street. I came back to get her so we could go grab dinner. The people at the conference recommended that we go to a restaurant called the Chelsea. We had a fantastic meal (calamari salad... bbq shrimp... salmon). We walked home in the rain & worked until 2 am!

I got up early on Thursday & went back to "my bench" to work a bit on the powerpoint we were giving. It was a new ppt for us, so we worked a lot on it. We walked to breakfast, worked on the ppt some more. We finished preparing at the conference center & then delivered a successful presentation. Lots of great feedback / good comments.... and encouragement from various students. We were walking through the trade show & we almost felt like celebrities. People giving us thumbs-up and waving and wanting to come up to talk to us. Neither of us have had such a great reception (It was a bit of an ego boost, admittedly!)

We went back to the Chelsea for a late late lunch and then flew back home. It was raining when we got back to the airport.

My *FAVORITE* thing about the trip: the fish popping up out of the water. Were they going for bugs just above the surface? That made me smile every time I saw it. Once or twice I saw a fish pop out 3 or 4 times in a row. That's talent!

It was a really busy week -- but that's ok. It kept my mind off of the waiting for Roberta to call back with info on the foster care child.

I feel like I should "document" what we do. Last night: went out after work last night with Todd's co-workers 'til about 8, then drove a short ways away to a gallery in town to visit an exhibit of a former co-worker who's a photographer now. Then, Todd & I grabbed a little bite of food before coming home. We had an interesting discussion:

A former neighbor -- who's adopted 2 children told us a few weeks ago about a woman who has a child in foster care... but she cannot take care of the little girl anymore. She wants to find a family for the girl b/c she doesn't want her to go back into the system. I believe she's 2 years old. At first, Todd said he'd prefer to start our family with an infant. I've been thinking a lot about the situation lately / he & I talked about it last night. He said he had been thinking about it lately too.

I think we're going to at least talk to the lady andget more details. It's not guaranteed, but we were actually discussing about HOW THE HECK would we go ahead & take this on?! Honestly, I don't think we could afford it w/out working.... could I work from home? would the foster mother be willing to watch her during the day (we could pay her / it may ease the transistion?) would a two year old be sad about leaving her foster home? would she bond with us? we figured that we could fix up the room real quickly. it just needs some crown moulding and one piece of shoe moulding. technically, the ceiling needs to be painted, but we could do this later (i was thinking about painting clouds on the ceiling in there & that may take awhile). what about furniture. what do 2 year olds need? could she use the double bed we already have in there? (we could just find a cute bed spread?) are 2 year olds potty trained? walking around? what about baby-proofing issues? clothes - i think i could figure out, but what kind of toys would we need to supply her with? when would a kid start going to some sort of school? pre school at 3 or 4? we don't have 9 months to plan... so i'm a little freaked out!

I emailed our neighbor & asked her to put us in touch. I'll call later too - when it's a decent hour. I'll write more later once we talk to a couple of folks.

I may actually go back to sleep. Woke up real early thought I'd blog a bit to get some stuff out of my brain.

Candice

3 more letters...

The weekend was a blur... drove to Asheville Monday / stopped in Hendersonville for the "Apple Festival" and bought a peck of apples (2 bags worth) -- what ever that means! But we took some to our friends Tad & Ashley (and their son Brenner). The next day, I hung out with a girl name Amy (the wife of the structural engineer for Todd's project) and her kids, Julia & Johnathan, at the Arboretum in Asheville. It's basically a big public garden. I got some good ideas for our back yard.... sorry Todd.... it will cost us, I'm sure. I did some work on the back porch at the Bed & Breakfast while Todd was at his project meeting -- which was very relaxing. We got home late last night from Asheville.

But, I was so pleasantly surprised to get more letters! In fact, we got three today. Pretty cool, really. I was telling a friend, Sara, how "therapeutic" this is -- to get such great words of encouragement from our friends, neighbors, and family. We got a letter from a former co-worker - Milli, a current co-worker - Ruth Ann, and a friend / travel companion - Mike. In fact, the latter was really touching, for I feel that Mike knows us very well. We've travelled with him & his family to the mountains on several trips and they let us stay with them in Italy last fall when he was working out there. We have become close with him, his wife Sara, and son Aaron. They just had another baby (about 2 months ago)... and... should we be lucky enough to adopt soon, I'm sure that their boys will grow up playing with our kids.

Oh - I thought of one other interesting thing that happened recently: I'm working on a side job -- a renovation project at a neighbor's house. Their daughter REALLY wants to be an architect and go to the same school that Todd & I went to. I think she's 9 -- which is impressive that she's that into colleges already. The cute thing is that when I go over there, she does sketches of bubble houses and beds that slide out of walls and stuff. She's very creative -- and her mom gave me the sketches she did today.... I guess I'm supposed to incorporate them into the plans for their kitchen & bedroom renovation? I like encouraging her to sketch and think of new ideas. Also, I gave her a project & a book to do the project in -- to photo document the state of the current house / then document things as the renovation takes place. I need to check her "before" pictures to make sure she does them!

It's 11:00 pm. I'm going to scoot. I don't think I have anything interesting going on tomorrow. That's ok. I need to settle down a bit & get back to normal.

C

A whirlwind week...

Since I wrote last... a lot has happened. I went to a meeting in Alabama (haven't been since I was a kid. Actually parts of it (the northern part as we were heading into Tennessee) were quite beautiful. Sounds weird, but we drove through Chattanooga Tennessee to get to our destination in Huntsville Alabama. I was meeting with a bunch of Army folks for work. One Army person from Atlanta rode with us... the rest came from NC & Illinois. The first night we got there, we drove around the historic part of town. They have 3 districts. It's much nicer & larger than I expected. We had 2 days of meetings & then drove back Wednesday night.

Thursday night, I went to Dave & Buster's with my girl's night crowd. What a fantastic place. We ate dinner, then played games for a few hours. (My favorite thing right now to do there is to play this interactive video game that simulates you in a boxing rink. You have these gloves on which must have sensors in them... and it shows how you jab the guy on the computer screen. My friend Renee did SO good!! I think she burned over 300 calories b/c her game dragged out for 3 or 4 rounds! (I only made it to round 2 this time, but the first time I did it, I kicked A.. too!) We played for tickets at Skee Ball, a horse racing game, and at basketball... our friend Courtney got an Elmo for her little girl and Karen got a frog for her son with all of our combined tickets.

Friday, I had another out-of-office day -- but at least locally. We held a green building charrette for an architecture firm in town. It went well - maybe one of the best ones we've had? So... by the end of the day on Friday, I was tired from the travels earlier that week & from the all-day presentation. But - I had a nice treat that night. I had previously scheduled a massage Friday night. I've only had one before. This one -- was at the house!! The masseuse set up at the far end of our bedroom - in front of the open doors overlooking the pond. (That was my idea... and it was great - it was so relaxing!)


Today (Saturday), Todd & I ran some errands and went up to the square. There was an Art in the Park festival. We bought a print from a local painter. Also, I took some old boxes to contribute to the kids area -- as our group organizes an event where kids paint them to look like buildings & they lay them out on roads which have been drawn on a big white tarp. It's pretty cute. One day, we'll be able to take the kids through the sand-in-the-bottle making area... and the big bouncy house... and the face painting. One day.

Tonight, we went to a wedding & saw a bunch of people we used to work with. It was outdoors & the weather was gorgeous (finally). One of the couples we know were talking about their next trip to Cumberland Island. I blurted out "can we go with you next time?" and they said YES! yay. i'm so excited. i've wanted to go there for quite some time, but it's a little intimidating. (It's very wild... there are horses that roam the island. There's no civilization on the island (well, I think there may be a litte in one part - but not where you camp out at). So... I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to go with them. They've been the past 4 or 5 years with their 2 children.

Tomorrow, we're going to a Braves / Mets game. Monday - Labor Day holiday - we're driving to Asheville in the morning & are planning to meet some folks in a neighboring city for the local apple festival. Tuesday, I'm planning to go to the Asheville Arboretum with one of them & their kids.

All in all - good times this week.
good night. C