Success! We have running water! This should have been a simple enough project. Remove old sink and vanity. Install new sink and vanity. But we’ve found very little is easy in this house of ours.

The vanity itself was in horrible shape. The humidity of the bathroom over the years had left the wood a bit wonky. When we decided to re-do the bathroom floor, I decided the vanity had to go first. I didn’t want to re-do the floor and then in a couple years mess it up by taking out the vanity. So out it went, courtesy of Steve.

Notice anything odd in this photo? I never gave any thought to it prior to ripping out one vanity and trying to install a new one. Where do the pipes under your sink come from? The wall? Yeah, that would be normal, huh? Nope, our lovely DIY’er decided it was easier to bring the pipes up from the floor. That creates quite a dilemma when putting in a new vanity. Do we chop up the floor of the new vanity we just purchased? And huh, the cold water pipe comes up right where the drawer sliders are – guess those will have to go too. By Sunday afternoon, Steve had determined he was going to cut out most of the floor of the vanity and get rid of the drawers. We would just wood glue the drawer fronts on the vanity later so it would look normal. Fortunately, Steve doesn’t have any power tools. He knew it would take ages to saw through all of that with his little hand saw so he decided to wait until Monday and call his dad.

Monday evening, my brilliant and handy father in law shows up. At least I knew if the vanity had to be chopped up, it would be done well. My FIL is an amazing woodworker. He’s built some beautiful things in their home and we have an amazing (and unbelievably heavy) roll top desk that he built Steve. And he knows how to do just about anything around the house. They go to Home Depot to pick up whatever they needed and my FIL promised to return the next evening to help finish the job.

They worked furiously for a couple of hours for 3 nights and the end result is this:

Lovely, isn’t it? And the drawers work. There is hardware for the door and drawers – I just haven’t put it on yet. And stupid as it is, this is one of the reasons I chose this sink – I love that it lets light through! It’s like having a little refrigerator light under the bathroom sink (yes, I’m a dork). More photos next week after the floor is done. (This is our only bathroom – besides a toilet in a scary room in the basement. So, forgive me my excitement. I know all of you out there with your double sinks and 3 1/2 baths are feeling very sorry for me now.)

First I need to say, yet again, how amazed I am at the wonderful support I receive from all of you out there in blog land. You all have your own individual struggles yet always take the time to offer support me when I’m having a moment. Thank you!

I had a ball shopping for baby stuff this weekend. Gotta say, the internet browsing and bookmarking system is great! I spent hundreds (okay, probably thousands) of dollars in my head but in reality only spent $20 on my baby wipes cover. There are a few things that I am going to go back and purchase but the majority was just fun to browse through. I had no idea some of this stuff was out there! You can buy some seriously bizarre baby items. (Who spends over $100 on a pacifier that has been bedazzled? Do these people know the life expectancy of a pacifier? Once lost, those things can be more elusive than Big Foot. Go buy a hot glue gun!)

I had serious fun shopping for books on Amazon. There are a couple of the onesies that I featured in my post on Sunday that I am seriously considering. Still going back and forth on the stroller issue. But my favorite thing? I think I found the diaper bag I want. Yes, I know, this sounds like a trivial thing but I’ve been contemplating this diaper bag issue for awhile now. I will likely carry the thing for 2 years of my life so I might as well find one that I like. I heart this diaper bag. It is stylish, has long enough handles to wear over my shoulder with a coat on, and has lots of nifty pockets to hold all sorts of mysterious mom type things that I will carry around.

While searching for diaper bags, I was impressed to find they don’t all come in pastels and have cartoon characters on them (not that there is anything wrong with that). There are some really stylish bags out there – I’m impressed by the options that exist. This was the other diaper bag I considered. I decided it was more than I wanted to spend on a diaper bag but if I didn’t heart the other one so much I might just spend the additional money for this one. Of course then I would have to find shoes to go with it.

Finally, my radio station plays this poem on the first day of school every year and I cry. I had to turn it off this year – I just can’t handle it. So if you have little ones going off to school today, or if you just want a good tear jerker, check it out. It’s meant for dads but I cry anyway. (Click on the little sound icon under A Message from A Father to his Little Girl on the First day of School.)

I’m an odd and slightly twisted individual in many ways. And there are many ways my husband would agree I am rather complex. Many of us have taken at least Psychology 101 and realize that the human brain is something of a mystery.  But sometimes it is really quite simple. Don’t like everyone else’s reality? We’ll (we being me and my brain) make our own!
I sleep very heavily and often don’t wake up when my alarm goes off – I reach over and hit snooze without realizing it. Yeah…great when trying to get to work on time. Often my brain will incorporate the sound of my alarm into my dreams. Most days it is some annoying telephone I can’t find or a school bell or an alarm bell of some sort.  Last Monday it was a warning alarm that the office building I was in was bugged (and there are a few ladies who might understand my paranoia considering the events of last Sunday). This morning? I dreamed that it was an alarm that went off to notify us of impending referrals from out agency. Yep…I’m complex like that. Even Freud couldn’t crack that one.

Last night, a few people from my agency chatted for awhile via the internet. Several of us were furiously comparing notes on our super secret referral waiting lists. Almost all of us who are on the list have one. Some are more organized than others. Some are more complete than others. And some are more accurate. Mine is a nice, organized yet not complete or accurate spreadsheet. I inherited it from another agency client and I have apparently failed miserably at updating it. I thought we were #5 or 6 on The List. Turns out we are more like #8 or 9. There were a few people who received their 171h’s this week and are in a higher priority class than us (open to gender or have opposite gender children at home already) and therefore they jump ahead of us on the list. The longer we chatted, the further we fell on the list. Maybe I should go back to not paying attention to The List. Maybe ignorance really is bliss.

One downside of paying attention to The List and everyone’s place on it is that I have conflicting feelings when reading the agency message board. I am truly happy when I see someone finally received that 171h she has been waiting for for months. I celebrate with her because this is a hard process and we really do need to support one another. But there is a little voice in the back of my head saying “Chickenbus! Another person who will go ahead of us on The List.” It’s weird to have that voice there…it hadn’t been there prior to my being aware of The List.

The positive thing about paying attention to The List (or at least how I rationalize it) is that I’m not waiting by the phone for our referral. I’m not obsessively charging my cell phone. I’m not deluding myself into thinking our call will come next weekend.

My thoughts go out to Heather and Angie who are entering week 7 or 8 of their waits for baby girls. I’m getting a little nuts after 4 weeks so my heart goes out to you two!

We went to see The Descent tonight. I have never been that uncomfortable while watching a movie. Ever. Back in the day, I loved scary movies. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Texas Chainsaw – had a ball watching them with friends and getting freaked out. There was a formula to those movies. You could even crack jokes about taking off your heels before running through the woods with an axe murderer chasing you or not going to investigate that noise in the basement by yourself.

Back to The Descent. Six female friends go spelunking. First let me say, if you are claustrophobic? Don’t go see this movie. I am not claustrophobic but I was extremely tense during the first half of the movie. I would seriously freak out if I was that far underground and in those tight spaces. So I was already wound tight. Then they introduce the creatures. The creatures themselves were a little freaky but they wouldn’t have had much effect if I wasn’t already wound so tight from the situation these ladies found themselves in. Throw in some gore and I was hiding behind my hand for a good portion of the movie.

If you like a scary movie that doesn’t quite follow the ordinary formula, then this might be the one for you. Otherwise, don’t go. It’s not bad – just very disturbing. More disturbing than The Ring in my book.

And when did they start putting so many commercials before movies? I spent $9.00….I shouldn’t have to see 7 commercials before the trailers even begin. By the time the movie started, I was ready to go home.

I blamed peer pressure for Friday’s purchase of the adorable dress…now I’m going to blame it for this purchase. Yes I bought a “couture” wipe cover. How frivilous is that? (If you want one, try e-bay key words couture wipe cover.) Totally don’t need it but love it anyway. I blame Tricia for starting it and Alleen and Sig have supporting roles.

Tried a different restaurant for brunch today. It was Caribbean. I had a nice tropical paella It was good but not deserving of a whole paragraph as the last brunch was.

Tricia inspired me to do some searches of my own for baby items. I haven’t purchased any of these but they all made me chuckle. (Yes, some are in very bad taste.) If you can’t read the saying, click on the photo to see it larger. We have a great crew of ladies at using our agency and I’m having a ball getting to “know” them through blog land.

I’ve been so good during our wait for a referral. Monday will be 4 weeks. I haven’t really complained or whined much have I? I haven’t gotten too worked up about it because I knew we were so far down on the list. There have been 11 referrals so far in our 4 week wait. That means we have moved up on the list. Because of the formula our agency uses, some people have jumped ahead of us – it isn’t a static list – but we have moved up. (If someone is open to gender, they immediately go to the front of the line when they are paper ready. And if someone requests a specific gender and has a child of the opposite gender already, they also move ahead of childless couples who have requested a specific gender. That last one I don’t really see the logic of but it’s not my place to question such things.) By my best guess, we are somewhere around #6 or 7. My best guess doesn’t factor in any people in our agency who don’t use the message board so there is definitely a large margin of error.

Because I know we are getting toward the time for our referral, I am starting to get a bit antsy. I’m having the urge to start on the nursery and start some serious shopping. And I’m daydreaming about getting The Call and then calling friends and family to tell them about our daughter. I’m imagining a time when I can think of myself as a mommy and not feel like a fraud when I visit the baby section in stores. I’m trying to envision her face. I’m contemplating a time when I can say “my daughter” without feeling like giggling because it seems surreal. We have dreamed of having a child for so long. And we’ve worked for 5 months to get to this point. I still have days when I am sure it will never happen. That we are kidding ourselves. Guess I’m waiting for the adoption equivalent of another miscarriage.

Referrals have come on Sundays the last few times but I haven’t heard any rumors of referrals for this weekend. (They don’t have to come on Sunday, it has just happened that way.) I know we won’t be in the next batch of referrals so I’m not going crazy yet. But I can feel it starting. Once the next set of referrals is given and we are really close, I will start to go slowly insane. Fair warning for all of you in blog land. It won’t be pretty.

I did a bad thing today. I didn’t want to. It was peer pressure. Two of my co-workers did it and then egged me on to do it too. I went to Kaufman’s at lunch. We have a 9 story Kaufman’s downtown. And they are always running sales. But sometimes they run super sales. I bought a huge bag of clothes for Shelby (my BFF’s daughter) for little more than $40 a few weeks ago. Every time I go to Kaufman’s and visit the baby section (5th floor, toward the back), I pick up the same dress. I don’t know why but I love this little dress. I started picking it up when it was full price ($60 – I can’t justify spending $60 on a dress for a baby). I saw it marked down to $40. Still too much. Later it was marked down to $29.99. I still hesitated. Last time I was there, it was $18. Much more reasonable but when compared to all of the $2 and $5 deals it seems like a lot. What if she only wore it once? What if I bought the wrong size (it’s a summer dress) and she can’t wear it at all? Today it was marked down to $15. I’ve thought about this little dress for months now. I go to that chickenbussing job every day so that I can afford to do things like this. So I bought it. I bought it in 9months figuring if she is born in September, she will grow into it next summer. I love it. I am not adopting a girl just to play dress up – that’s just a fun perk.

With the adoption related drama, which I cryptically eluded to on Monday, I didn’t get a chance to tell you all how my Sunday began. It may have ended with anxiety, nausea, and a general sense of outrage, but it began as the perfect day.

It was beautiful outside warm, sunny, no humidity, not a cloud in the sky. Steve and I went down to the strip district. We went to brunch at Lydia’s. If there is a more perfect meal than a Sunday morning brunch at Lydia’s I would be hard pressed to name it. Lydia’s is a lovely Italian restaurant – Lydia has a cooking show on PBS, lots of cookbooks, and restaurants in other cities.

Brunch is set up as a menu-compris. One price for all the courses and you choose your entre from the daily menu. We started with mimosas. Then a lovely anti-pasta bar with heavenly salads, meats, and cheeses. A wonderful basket of pastries and muffins was waiting on our table. (I’m a muffin whore. And if I could get my hands on decent pastries – Danish and bear claws do NOT count – I would be a pastry whore too.) The main course for me was a pasta sampling – you start with a small portion of the 3 daily pasta specials and the waiters float around the dining room with skillets of 3 different types and give you refills as you request them (I couldn’t do refills – stuck with one sample of each). The ravioli stuffed with pear, mascarpone, parmesan, and asiago cheeses was an eyes-roll-back-in-your-head experience. Steve got something else but with my eyes rolling back in my head I didn’t notice. Finally, there was a lovely dessert table with tiramisu, tarts, cakes and cookies. I tried the raspberry tart and a pistachio & lemon cannoli. Yummo! Yes, I just spent an entire paragraph talking about my meal. It was that good.

After brunch, we wandered around the strip for a bit. I did something completely out of character for me. I did some Christmas shopping in August. My husband was in awe (is this my wife who pays $75 on 12/23 to get a box of gifts to her mom by Christmas?�). It was effortless because I wasn’t trying to do Christmas shopping. I just came across a few things that I thought my mom and my mother in law would enjoy. And Steve mentioned something his brother would like so we picked that up too. I actually have a really good start on Christmas. And it is only August!
Steve said something about heading down to the strip again this Sunday. He wants to go to a different restaurant. I don’t see why. It can’t get better than Lydia’s. I’m willing to try it I guess. We’ll see if this restaurant he wants to go to is worthy of a whole paragraph.