2 Years or 24 Months Down

I can't believe it's 2 years after my dossier was logged in with the China Center for Adoption Affairs, and I'm still looking at probably at least a 2 year wait, maybe longer. I haven't saved any money. I've pretty much lost hope. There's no reason not to leave my dossier in China as deep down I do believe in miracles. Or rather, I believe if I'm meant to have Amanda, things will work out. It just looks bleak in this ecomony.

Weekend Update:
My neighbor, who's maple leaves fell all over my front yard, told me last night that he contracted someone to rake his front yard so if I wanted to, I could rake my leaves into his yard. I did that this afternoon. I did bag some of them. Made the job much easier. Jessica has started taking a Friday night dance class and then we spent most of Saturday at dance. Anna is dancing in a version of the Nutcracker with the Metro Ballet . They are using "real" Chinese dancers in the Chinese Tea Dance in the dream sequence. Anna actually gets a nice part. There's a rehearsal, with a real orchestra, next Friday and then the performances are next Saturday and Sunday. She's pretty excited!

I never made it to work today, so it looks like I'll have to use one of my vacation days on Wednesday. My daycare provider officially dumped me Friday. She's not even doing before school care anymore. I'm still going to pick up the girls from school. Some days we'll go back to work. Other's I'll try to bring work home. I still haven't figured out all th school release days although I've got some of them covered already. I'm hoping to get some cleaning done this weekend. The girls know the tree isn't going up until I've got at least the living and dining room cleaned.

Daycare Woes Again Among Other Things

So between dealing with nits, yuk!, and a dead car battery this week, I now find I have to decide what to do with daycare again. My daycare provider got a day job. She can still do before school care, but we were doing after school. Since she starts Monday (some notice, huh), I'm assuming she won't get the 2 weeks off around Christmas time. Jessica is adamant that she does not want to go back to daycare. I guess she figures she's too old for that now. I looked at the school's program again, but its so darn expensive even for one child (school release days are $40 per day per child. After school for Anna would be $17/day - too much for a pretty low maintenance kid and for only 1.5 hours of care needed).

And when I also have to look at higher camp costs for the summer now, I need to balance the whole year and not just days when school is in session. I'm actually toying with not using daycare at all. Luckily, I only work about 10 minutes from home, so I could pick up Anna from the bus and take her back to work with me to finish out the day. The odd school day off here and there, I can probably make up or just take off. But vacation days are limited. And looking at the program at school, they also closed on days like Martin Luther King Day and President's Day. I don't have those days off. I only get 8 holidays - so Christmas Day and New Year's Day, but not the Eve's of either, which the school's program is closed on. I don't have anywhere near enough to cover all the school release days, let alone the summer. I don't look forward to cutting the cord with my daycare provider who I've had for 8 years, but I think it might be time. It'll just be really, really hard! I decided to not make any definite decision for another week so I can really think everything through, but that's what I'm thinking now.

And the radio station I normally listen to is playing all Christmas music starting today. I don't think I can handle it. It's too early for this.

2 Lousy Days!

That's all CCAA referred this month. 2 days worth of LID's! They've referred through Feb. 17, 2006 LID's. I'd hate to take a bet that they'll finish February in 2008. With an LID of 11/22/06, who knows how long it will take to get a referral?

Election

I hope everyone got out and voted. I believe very strongly that everyone should vote, even those who don't agree with me. I know we all witnessed history last night. I should have been thrilled as my guy won, but I was more relieved than anything. I guess deep down I still wished it had been Hillary. But it is nice to be on the winning side for once.

McCain gave a very impressive concession speech last night. It really showed his true character, which I didn't see until last night because of all the negative ads we were bombarded with.

Obama gave an excellent speech as well. I really hope he turns out to be a good president - as good as all the hype and excitement, as good as his speeches. We definitely need change and to turn things around in this country, not only with the economy, but also America's perception worldwide. Hopefully this was the first step.

Anna was excited because she voted for him at school. In her Scholastic News it said his favorite children's book was "Harry Potter". She figured he was her guy if he liked Harry Potter. On the other hand, she asked me this morning what he won. I said he gets to be president of the United States of America and she thought that was a pretty good prize.

Jessica has watched a lot of the stuff leading up to the election. We've discussed a lot of the ads and how if we know one side is distorting the truth, we know that the other side must be too. And we've talked about why I voted the way I did. Jess was anxious to hear what the results of her school election would be. They were announcing it this morning. She knows I voted at her school and has a pretty good understanding. I did see one of her classmates outside when I was being a parent volunteer yesterday afternoon. He asked if the votes of all the people coming in really counted. I told him yes, they really count! He was pretty impressed that we were really electing a new president.

Our senatorial race is pretty much a dead heat. Out of the nearly 3 million votes cast for senator, the difference between the top two is only around 700 votes. That calls for a mandatory recount, so we may not know the results until mid-December. It was such a nasty campaign, and now we don't even have a clear cut winner. Ugh, I sure wanted that one to be over with. You get to a point where you don't want to vote for either candidate, which I guess explains why the Independent candidate got 15% of the vote, with less than a majority, 42% each, for Coleman and Franken.

Update

Sorry I’ve been so lax in posting anything lately. I’m still having computer issues at home, but I also have been so, so busy. Here I’d hoped I’d be home tonight and now I find out Anna has a Brownie meeting. It’s on the other side of town, so Jessica and I are better off finding something to do rather than going home, as we’d just have to turn around again to pick Anna up.

Dance was the big time commitment leading up to the first weekend in October. Then I was working during every spare minute as I was dealing with an October 15th extended due date for my calendar year plans at work. I typically am very, very busy from Sept 15 – Oct 15th. Once I got that behind me, that next weekend was Chinese Culture Camp through our local FCC. We had a really good time this year. The food was excellent! The only downer was that Anna had a tummy ache. She was able to eat and function, but she asked for me during the breakout of the kids and parents class, so a couple of parents burst into the classroom I was in looking for Anna’s mom. Anna also skipped the disco on Saturday night in favor of watching a movie. We rode up with some friends and that made the drive go quickly.

I didn’t manage to get pumpkins until 2 days before Halloween, and then we were carving them at 5:30 on Halloween. I didn’t get pictures of the girls. Anna put together a costume from her dress-up clothes and went as a Blue Fairy (she could also have been a butterfly with the large wings). Jessica was a Skeleton Bride. She looked more like a Countess of the Dark. We trick-or-treated with friends again this year. Always fun for all of us. The weather was wonderful this year. Some years you can’t even see the costumes because we have to wear winter coats. The girls had to count their candy when we got home. Between the 2 of them, they collected 370+ pieces of candy, some quarters and some pencils and erasers. For my girls it’s all about getting the candy. I don’t think Jessica has eaten any of hers, and Anna has only eaten a few pieces. I think I’ve eaten more.

Saturday we had dance, then met 2 other families at a local indoor park for a picnic and running around (the kids, not us). Sunday I really wanted to stay home, but the girls talked me into going to the Mall of America. We had lunch at the Rainforest Café, then spent a good deal of time at Lego-Land (the girls have put Legos on their Christmas list now), then settled for 2 rides at Nickelodeon Universe. They talked me into doing the Pepsi Streak rollercoaster. I was a little nervous as there are places on the track where you’re sideways. I also barely fit into the seat and ended up in the front car. Was I ever glad when it was over.

I’m so behind in everything! My house is a candidate for Clean House or Clean Sweep. I know I owe lots of people gifts from swaps and I’m so sorry. I just can’t seem to motivate myself. I’ve also really wondered whether I want to just settle for my two girls. I bring it up with them every now and then. They still want 2 more sisters – yikes! But when I go to culture camp or dance or my single mother’s by choice get-togethers, I look at the pre-k or younger kids, and I’m really not sure I want to go there again. I love the ages my girls are now, I really do. But then yesterday I saw a mom carrying what looked like a 3 year old boy and he was so cute. Its really looking like the wait isn’t going to get any shorter. So I’ve got lots of time to wonder what to do. I think that’s why I’ve been pretty silent on my yahoo groups. I’ve always tried to motivate people and right now I want to crawl in a hole and forget I’m even waiting. Most of the time I really don’t think I’ll be getting a third child. I believe everyone else waiting will get their child, I just think maybe I may have to stop at some point.

Anyway, that’s what I’ve been up to lately. I actually don’t have plans yet for Thursday, but I noticed when I left the house this morning that one neighbor’s maple tree had turned completely yellow and was starting to drop (into my yard), and the other neighbor who’s elm tree spans 3 yards had also turned. So it looks like I’ll be raking leaves soon. Those seem to always be the last trees to drop their leaves, so I always have a limited time to rake before the snow starts falling.