23 is significant

Today we have reached a milestone in our wait for our referral. We are number 23! You may be wondering to yourself, "self - why is #23 so signifcant to them?" Well, all you selves out there, let me tell you. Now when we check our status on "The List" we NO LONGER have to scroll down to find our names! That, my friend, is kind of like feeling your baby move for the first time. Or something. In honor of this very important milestone in our adoption journey, I present you with:

Groundhog Day is almost here!!

Posted by Aaron:

Every day when I log into my Yahoo email there's a little calendar at the bottom of the page that lists upcoming holidays, etc. In the last couple of days I've noticed that Groundhog Day is coming up - February 2nd to be exact. As the legend goes, if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it will return into its burrow, and the winter will continue for 6 more weeks.

I began to ask myself, "self, why the heck is such a day as Groundhog Day celebrated or recognized by a nation of 300 million people?" Honestly I don't have an answer. Studies show that the accuracy rate of the beloved groundhog's annual predictions are a dismal 39% (no joke - an organization actually did a study on this). Given that there are only two possibilities, I could think of any number of ways to more accurately predict the outcome for the rest of winter. Among them: flipping a coin, asking a monkey, or polling the American public (ok - I'll admit I'd probably go with the groundhog over the American public, but in theory 50% accuracy should occur).

So as we celebrate this great day in American culture, let us not forget other great holiday's that have been overlooked, but are nonetheless as important if not MORE important than Groundhog Day.

January 3: Humiliation Day - no, don't humiliate people, rather, learn about just how badly someone feels when they're humiliated.
January 7: Old Rock Day - three cheers for old rocks! When big old rocks rub together they cause earthquakes.....
April 26: Richter Scale Day - three cheers for the Richter Scale for telling us how hard the old rocks are rubbing together!
April 30: Hairstyle Appreciation Day - self explanatory
June 18: International Panic Day - AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
September 27: International Rabbit Day - the worlds third most popular pet (behind dogs and cats)
December 21: National Flashlight Day - where would we be without flashlights in a power failure?
December 31: Make Up Your Mind Day - A favorite of impatient people everywhere as they yell "MAKE UP YOUR MIND!" to the indecisive people in their lives.

Whatever you do on Groundhog Day, just remember that if you bet against the groundhog's predictions you'll more than likely be correct.

Quarter Inch Margins

Posted by Aaron:

As some of you who read this blog know, I enjoy writing, playing and recording music. While I don't write or record as much as I'd like to (especially in the last year with all the moving, adoption, garage renovating, etc) I do get the chance to every now and then. I wrote and recorded a song this past week and I thought I'd share it.

The basic concept of the song is the idea of having so much going on in your life that there's no room for ANYTHING extra and wanting to change that. I had a conversation with a friend last week and we were discussing how everything that we're doing in our lives are "good" things, but we need to be focused on doing the BEST things. Where do we give God room to do the extraordinary in our lives if we leave no room or time for anything out of the ordinary?

At any rate - enjoy the song. If you don't enjoy it, that's fine too - hopefully you get something out of the text in this post. ;)



Lyrics:

Time is not the friend that you think it's always been
'Cuz time will always outrun you
Let's run a little faster, avoid this near disaster
Spare another minute or two

My page is getting fuller, the space can't get much tighter
And I'm feeling like I'm I've lost my soul
Time is not the answer, 'cuz life's just getting faster
Despite what I think I know

I'm living with quarter inch margins

God won't you help me tonight
To stop thinking all I need is more time
God won't you help me tonight
These quarter inch margins are tight

My friend could use a hand with his marriage near it's end
But I've got another thing to do
His constant invitations becoming irritations
Just give me a second or two

I'm living with quarter inch margins

God won't you help me tonight
To stop thinking all I need is more time
God won't you help me tonight
These quarter inch margins are tight

Last night

Another eventful night at the Peterson's last night.

I woke up in the middle of the night from the sound of Page pacing around in our room. Now, this is an unusual occurrence - she rarely even moves from her bed or the basement during the night. Anyway, I was super disoriented. I had no idea what time it was, and I was trying to figure out if Aaron's alarm had gone off - which would explain the dog being in our room.

While I was laying in bed trying to figure out what was going on, Page put her paws up on my side of the bed and started licking my face. I pushed her away and realized my ears were ringing. Irritating. Page again put her paws up on the bed and started licking me. I pushed her away again, and this time sat up in bed trying to get my ears to stop ringing.

Aaron and woken up by now, and I realized that my ears WEREN'T ringing - there was a high pitched squeal coming from somewhere. Aaron was hearing it too. By this point, Page is completely freaking out, she jumped up on our bed (a big no-no!), and got as close to me as she possibly could.

Aaron got up and realized that the sound we were hearing was the alarm from the sump pump. He had unhooked it the other day and forgot to hook it back up. It was 2:20am. Once the squealing stopped she went back to her bed in the living room and didn't stir until this morning. Just as a dog should.

I guess it is nice to know that we will never sleep through any kind of alarm!

Parenting....and weddings...and Mary

Last week our social worker sent us an email about a transracial parenting class being put on by the Harambee Village that was happening yesterday here in Duluth. We decided to attend, figuring we could use all the help we could get and hoping to meet some other families who are multi-racial. Although we were unable to attend the entire class and missed most of the "practical" stuff (we did an activity for the first part of the class), I am really glad we went. We were able to connect with several other families and we found out that this particular group meets once a month on Sundays. We are planning on trying to get involved and see what happens! The cool thing is that Aaron and I have been talking about trying to get involved in the community more, so this seems like a great place to start.

Yesterday evening we attending our friends Mike and Melissa's wedding. Melissa and I have been friends since middle school - it was so fun to see her get married! Their wedding was very God centered and showed exactly who they are as a couple. We are so happy for them!

Finally - I decided to add a picture (otherwise it looks so boring), so here's a picture of Jen and me with Mary Poppins. :)

Furnace

Just so you all know, we finally have an efficient furnace.

I got home today and said "Aaron, this furnace seems kind of loud." He said "That is the sound of air blowing through the vents."

It is wonderful to have a furnace that heats more than 1 degree per hour. Bliss.

Disney World

We got back last night from 6 wonderful days in Walt Disney World with my family (thanks again, mom and dad!). We had a great - albeit exhausting - time! Ask us what we did while we were there and our answer would be "everything." I think that we literally did everything that you could want to do while we were there. We hit up MGM, the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Animal Kingdom. Everything was decorated for Christmas, so there were trees and lights everywhere. It was awesome.
The weather was horrid for a couple days - the news down there said "this is the coldest it has been in five years." Oh well. Good thing we brought hats and mittens on our FLORIDA vacation.
Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip.