Feeling a little OLD...

I have seen a few blogs over the past few days posting '30 before 30', where you post a list of 30 things to do before you are 30 years old....I thought wow, that sounds like fun. I wonder what I would post? Travel to Asia, tour a west coat winery, advance in my career?? Then wait, it hit me....I am 32....does this mean I have to post a '40 before 40' list?! UGH....

Meal Plan for the week

Monday: GNO---Ava's with Brooke

Tuesday: Shrimp and tomato and feta cheese salad

Wednesday: Shrimp and fresh pasta with pesto

Thursday: BLTs with tater tots

Friday: tuna with mashed potatoes and vegetables

Saturday: Charthouse with Bennett and his wife....a FB reconnection from Elementary School!! : )

Sunday: spaghetti with meat sauce

Have a great week!! We had a nice weekend....enjoyed a ~10 mile bike ride up on Kent Island on the Cross Island Trail. It was beautiful riding along the water and in the trees. Much prettier than we anticipated. This is a new find and something we will go back to for sure! I wish I had my camera with me to post pictures....next time!

Adoption Update...

We have been in the process of gathering paperwork to adopt a little girl from China for a little over a year now...it is a LONG tedious process but I know that it will be worth it in the end when we are holding our daughter in our arms one day. However, that day seems to be further and further away every day. It's hard for me. Todd and I are the type of people that we will analyze something to the nth degree...then once we make up our mind we are READY! When we started the paperwork process we were told 3-5 years...we then went to a conference that told us they were hopeful that the wait time would shorten to 18 months again...now we are being told 7-10 years. Really?! 7-10 years???!! That's just insane to me. And, to make matters worse our home study agency is taking their sweet little time getting this home study complete AND the international agency is being very picky about the wording they would like to see...I am trying to stay level headed and calm...but really I just want to bang both of their heads together and tell them to just get this done.

We've been working on our homestudy since September 2009...it's just the 2 of us in the household...nothing fancy to us either....now I have NOT met the dossier submission log in date with my international agency and have to go 'on hold' until I have all the paperwork gathered. Once we get the homestudy approved we can apply for the I-800A...but in addition to that I have other paperwork that has to be updated....this is a long journey, it's heartbreaking, and there are times I don't feel like I have anyone other than Todd to turn to....I long for our daughter from China. I feel this is what we are meant to do in life....we are fortunate enough to supply a warm, loving, caring home for a child in need....but why does it have to be this hard????

Good news is that today the social workers have communicated and they hope to have some resolution to the home study by the end of the week..fingers crossed!!

Meal Plan

This is a little late in the week....but I will be linking up with Meal Plan Monday....check it out for other meal plans!!

Tuesday-Taco night
Wednesday-leftover roast chicken with fresh pasta and marinara sauce
Thursday-St.Michaels concert picnic...tomato, mozzarella, basil and proscuitto sanwiches and fruit
Friday-shrimp and heirloom tomato salad with feta cheese and balsamic dressing
Saturday-spaghetti with meat sauce
Sunday-shrimp with fresh pasta and pesto sauce

Have a great week!

Our weekend in Charleston

The other weekend, we flew to Charleston to stay with Nick and Cory who are expecting their first baby in August. It's a GIRL and her name will be Lucy Ryan McBee. We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend with such good friends and their families...here are a few shots from the festivities...

The Tearoom in Summerville, SC that had the BEST Sunday brunch

Todd and Nick escaping cleaning inside and spending some 'quality time' together

Presents for baby Lucy

The delicious food and diaper cake by the fabulous hostesses and Cory's Mom

Nick and Cory...the happy parents to be!!

Todd and Whitney...friends from college. Whitney is getting married in October, we can't wait!!

Nick, Cory, Me and Todd

Dinner at Magnolia's in Charleston....right after they asked us to be Lucy's Godparents. We were so honored and Nick brought tears to both mine and Todd's eyes when he asked us. We were very happy and shocked all at the same time. Lucy...we can't wait to meet you and share such a special part of your life with you. You will be one loved little girl!!

Thank you Nick and Cory for a great weekend....

Girls weekend

I am travelling to Tulsa, OK this weekend to see this beautiful lady....Susan and I have been friends since we were 3 years old when we lived across the street from each other. We were side by side all through Elementary School...then my family moved us to Maryland, where I live now...but we continued our friendship through the years, through highschool, through college....and I am finally making the trip back 'home'. She has a wonderful weekend planned for us and I can't wait!! We are even catching up with some other girls we knew from Elementary School....and I haven't seen them in 21 years!! Can you believe it?!

I leave Thursday and will be back Sunday....I hope Hubby will miss me....but with a fishing trip planned I am not thinking he will so much ; )

HUGE catch up

This is the wonderful chalkboard that y hubby made for the hallway downstairs that leads to the garage and half bath.

This is the finished project with chalk!

These are the curtains that I MADE!! And....without a sewing machine! My friend Sara had a link on her blog and it inspired me!! Just a little no sew hem tape...an iron...some pre-bought panesl from Wal-Mart ($13 for 2) and 2.5 yards of fabric fro Wal-Mart at $5.88/yard....it was the cheapest project ever and I am so happy with the way they turned out. They are hanging in our office and look great!

My beautiful Golden Retriever, Marley in our backyard the day after Todd cleaned things all up. Marley has her 'summer-do' here and my house is so much cleaner without the dog fur!

Thanks, Daniel for sending out such a yummy piece of cake for dessert!

April and Todd....brother and sister who share a birthday one day and five years apart!! We met at Mason's for a delicious lunch to celebrate their Birthdays.

For Todd's Birthday this year, we ended up eating dinner at Scossa and then went to see Date Night together. It was a wonderful evening. Then, on Sunday we had a brunch with 10 of our closest friends and their kids down in Cabridge at Clearview. It was a delicious all you can eat and drink champagne brunch and of course I left my camera at home!