Yay!

There are so many things I'm happy about today!

- work was fun today... I attended a breakfast meeting which was interesting... and at lunch I atteneded another presentation (I should have more work days like this - going and learning things!)
- while I was at work, Todd was meeting with the social worker. She came to our house to do an inspection. She found a battery in a smoke alarm that was dead, but otherwise, I think the appointment went well. BIG RELIEF.
- I had a clean house to come home to after work! We have both been working so hard cleaning, but mainly putting the upstairs back in order affter the renovation to the art studio.
- I took a nap when I got home. I love naps! And - I did it upstairs... in the room that we just cleaned out. The reason I did that: when you crack the window, you can hear the stream in the back yard. Total relaxation.

As I was laying there, I was thinking 2 things: 1 -- of the Chalet that Todd & I used to go to in north Georgia on a river..... and 2 -- what a cool room this would be for a teenager. It would be like a suite with a media room (our upstairs den). It's got the fish tank. A computer niche. A karaoke machine! (that was a gift, by the way)

I am definitely chill right now. And happy. ahhhhh..... it's all downhill from here regarding the home study.

---- On a separate note ----
Yesterday, we had another lead on a birthmother situation. Todd & I made the decision to send a profile to the woman's case worker. We're not getting our hopes up that this will pan out, but the timing is good (mid-april is her due date), the location is within driving distance (Arkansas), and there's a famous building in that state we've always wanted to visit... so we'd have something to do while there while waiting.

We are pursuing all options at this point. Our personal network is AMAZING and strong. I'm constantly getting people telling me how they've like the website / how they're passing along our adoption letter / etc. We'll see what happens.... either one of the opportunities that our consultant finds will work out for us or perhaps something within our personal network (or both?!) : - )

Todd & I are about to head out to grab a bite... I think we'll watch a netflix movie tonight when we get home. I'll check in later.

Tomorrow is yoga in the morning and then Soup Night in the evening.

Oh yeah -- Soup Night last Saturday went really well. It was our largest "opening night." Normally we have 8 - 10 people on our first Saturday. We had over 20. That's a little scary -- hopefully all of the Soup Nights aren't double or triple in size like this one was! We served French Onion as the vegetarian and a smokey ham & black bean soup as the non-veg. I got to catch up and spend time with most people there, but there were a handful that I didn't get to spend too much time with. I think Todd got to spend a lot of quality time with neighbors and friends.

Tomorrow I'm making the shrimp corn chowder and either a sun-dried tomato soup or a pumpkin / butternut squash soup as the veg.

ok. now I'm going to run.
Candice