San Diego

We are home from California. I think that our trip was one of the two most relaxing vacations I've ever been on. It was great. We slept in, did some touristy things, hung out at the hotel, watched TLC and the Discovery channel....we had a really really good time. It was really nice to be able to spend some extended time together with no agendas or commitments to attend to!
This one is self explanatory. We went to the zoo. It was awesome - our favorite part was watching a baby monkey play with an old monkey. It was hilarious.
At the beach the day we left. It was 70 and sunny every day we were there, but each afternoon it got quite breezy, and the wind was pretty cool so it wasn't quite swimming in the ocean weather.See all the spots on the shore that look like driftwood? THEY ARE SEALS!! We decided to go up the coast a bit, and we stopped to do some shopping . We parked down by the ocean and lo and behold, there were 100+ seals on the beach sunning themselves. Probably a solid 1/3 of them were babies!! They were awesome. Ok, that's all for now. We have a few more cool pictures I'll post later. In the meantime, I'm going to go figure out how to make "vacation life" become real life, because real life isn't quite as much fun!! :)

And the spilling the beans award goes to............

posted by Aaron:

BRANDON! Congratulations Brandon - you ruined the surprise! Way to go! Here's the brief recap of how Brandon earned this award.

The setting: Sunday evening. Brandon came over to hang out doing nothing on a lazy Sunday evening. I was in our living room using the laptop on one couch. Katie was reading on the other couch. Brandon was in our kitchen looking for something to eat and was wanting more discussion out of us than he was getting.

From the kitchen-
Brandon: "So, let's talk about something. How about you're vacation? So, you're going to San Diego.........or.......somewhere else....."

In the living room-
Aaron: does nothing trying to keep a poker face debating if there's any way to cover this or if it's a lost cause.

Katie: looks at Aaron and screams "Yes! I KNEW we were going somewhere in California! Are we?"

Aaron: Continues to keep a straight face, focusing on the laptop and trying to act as though he's missed everything that has happened, all the while trying to figure out a way to keep the lid on things.

Brandon: Awkwardly comes into the living room not saying much trying to figure out if he's going to get killed by Aaron for the mistake or kissed by Katie for giving up the secret.

Aaron: can't keep a straight face anymore and bursts out laughing. "Congratulations Brandon! You win the award for spilling the beans!"

There was no going back. All I could do at that point was laugh (and later give Brandon a nice hard titty twister as a thanks).

So, in summary, if there's anything you want to keep secret Brandon has proved that he's not the most reliable at keeping secrets. Expectant mothers - don't tell Brandon the sex and/or name if you don't want it shared with others. Green Bay Packers - keep any Favre retirement news away from Brandon until you're ready to share it with the public. And finally, all gift givers - I recommend removing Brandon from the "inner circle" of gift giving knowledge.

Who says there's nothing exciting going on?

Ok folks, this is Aaron posting. FYI in case you don't figure that out by what I say here...

Katie and I decided awhile ago that we wanted to take one last vacation with just the two of us before we're officially parents. We started thinking recently about the last time we've had a vacation with JUST the two of us and realized it's been almost 5 years. We've gone on a lot of trips, but have always gone either with family and/or friends or have gone somewhere to visit people we know.

I was able to convince Katie to let me arrange the vacation (which is fun because Katie rarely volunteers for surprises). All she knows is that we're going somewhere warm between now and May. I took care of her time off from work (actually - I kind of just called and said "I've got airfare booked for these dates - Katie won't be there." Hopefully she doesn't take to much flack for that).

Anyhow, on to the main reason for this post: I told Katie I'd give her a heads up about a week before we leave. I've been debating a fun way to tell her. A card? To sentimental. A note on the bathroom mirror? To predictable. Just tell her outright face to face? To anti-climactic. Then I thought - how about a blog post? Not the most perfect idea in the world, but definitely more original than the other ideas I've come up with. So....

Katie - finish up your "summer clothes" shopping you've been trying to do the past week or so and get your bags packed. We're flying out of Duluth next Thursday @ 7:00am (March 6th). I'll tell you where when we get to the airport...unless you'll agree to not look at your boarding pass, put a blindfold on and wear ear plugs. Then I'll just let you see where we are when we get off the plane. Somehow, I doubt you'll agree to that part of this.

Attn: people who know where we're going. PLEASE don't say a word to Katie about our destination (or else I'll have to create a post embarrassing you for spilling the beans! ;)

And to make this post a bit more exciting....a picture....

ZZZZzzzzz

Things have been fairly mundane in our house over the last few weeks, thus the lack of posting on the old blog. I mean, who really cares about things like how often we fill our cars with gas, how many items we've brought to the goodwill, or what the weather forecast is for Duluth?

But, to let you readers know that we have not forsaken the musings on our life, I figured I'd put a post up. I also need a break from planning my talk for youth group tomorrow - I can only study up on absolute truth, relativism, and the inerrancy of scripture for so long, you know?

Adoption - LITERALLY, no change. Nothing to report. Slow going. I'm starting to get antsy. I'm still hoping for a referral before Aaron's birthday. We'll see.

Interesting factoid: Last week I ate 2 entire oranges for the first time in my life!! (Keep in mind I'm turning 28 in April). They were really good, and somehow didn't gross me out as much as they usually do. I thought you should all know that.

We spent some time last weekend with my family, my grandma, and the Libby's. It was nice to get away from Duluth for the weekend!
We have also been able to spend a little bit of time with our new friend Kylie Thompson. God certainly is amazing!

And finally, here is a photo to spice things up. (we haven't taken many pictures recently). Jen has a sweet color setting on here camera; this is a photo she took when we had 3-D glasses on at Disney World.
Until next time....

Find your spot!

www.findyourspot.com

Take the quiz and find out the top 24 places for you to live! Strangely enough, Duluth was my #13! Weird. Bloomington, Indiana was my #1...how about you?

Half a year

Well folks, it's been 6 months that we've been on the waiting list for a baby. Last summer when we were officially put on the list and given the 5-7 month window for a referral I thought FOR SURE we'd be getting a referral by the 5 month mark. Well, obviously, things have really slowed down and now, half a year later, I am keeping my fingers crossed that we'll be getting The Call during our 7 months of waiting!

I will admit that I am starting to have moments of thinking that this is NEVER going to happen and it'll be fall before we bring our baby home...but...it is in those moments that I remember God's process of leading us down this road and I try to remember that all things are in His timing. I do wish in moments like these that I had Aaron's immense amounts of belief and faith and didn't question God's timing, plans, or outcomes. While I spend time agonizing over wait times and counting weeks and months on the calendar, Aaron just says very matter-of-factly "It'll happen when it is supposed to happen" then he'll just go write a new song.

So, while we're "killing time" we've made a list of things we should probably start getting for the baby so we aren't dropping hundreds of dollars in a few months on baby stuff. We've also got a list of spots in our house that need to get organized and cleaned, and we are anxiously awaiting the birth of Jon and Jo's baby. Hopefully their baby and our baby will be of opposite genders and we can set up an arranged marriage for 2028.

FYI

Someone else added themselves to the unofficial list, so we're down to #24. But I still don't have to scroll down to see ourselves, so that's good. And the people who added themselves are waiting for siblings, so it really doesn't impact our spot at all! Just thought I'd share in case anyone actually noticed that we are at 24, not 23. Later!