my october.... so far.

whew... 

a lot of blogging going on tonight. 

life has been amazingly busy! 

here's what i've been up to this past week or two. 

finally got around to making one of these! 

so excited that my very first one turned out way better than i thought. 

a few more of these and i can make a great wall collage for rowan's room. 

a ladies day of shopping and dinner out. 

much needed. much loved.

why is she SO cute? 

who needs diamonds? 

my furbabies. 

Go ducks!

football game. 

ducks vs. huskies. 

who won... 

well i'll let you guess... :)

ok seriously. 

this girl has learned from her "joking" father who pretends to be "gangsta"

and she has now really turned into this little thug girl. 

what's up.... all the time. 

i love her. 

but i'm a bit worried. ha!

WON THE DAY!

finally. a coffee table .

so we got our couch 7 years ago. 

and with it the hubs insisted on buying this huge ottoman. 

i protested it in the store. 

and i still protest it. 7 years later, i still hate the ottoman. 

i was so tired of using a nasty fabric ottoman like a coffee table... it was so gross. 

and then i got this. 

finally. 

a nice beautiful coffee table! 

that my very handy hubby built me. 

hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!

he built it. he stained it. he sanded it. 

he did it all. and i love it!

rascal photo bombing. 

please ignore the stains our old couch. 

that now looks worse with this gorgeous coffee table next to it. 

i told bubs that we still had another 3 years left on this couch, but now... 

he may convince me to get a new couch a bit earlier than that. 

so... any advice on where to get a cute semi-colored couch that is still comfortable to sit on and not too spendy. 

i'm sure there are some gorgeous ones on etsy.. but probably cost thousands to ship to me. 

in the meantime.. i will soak in the beauty of my table. 

Apple Cider.

off to the local apple squeeze!

we've been a few times before, but never actually made the cider. 

and this year we did. 

we had such a great time!

can i please day... another reason why i love fall? 

apples. and cider. 

cider floats. apple cider donuts. 

such a big helper, i tell ya. 

ha. 

i also tried this. it was easier than i thought. 

until the apples get stuck. and then you turn it backwards and they start spraying juice all over your face. 

ha. ha. ha. 

we had a super great time!

Last meeting & Seattle.

September 25th meeting Cathy for child referral information

so after we got our home study approved we had to make one more appointment up in seattle. 

just ONE more official one until we are in the waiting period. the period where we can start getting referrals 

so we got it scheduled and on september 25th we headed up to seattle and had our last meeting. 

we ended up in a small room with one lady. 

it is her job to know everyone who is there and getting child referrals. 

she is the child referral lady. 

she knows all the people at the agency. 

she is the dictionary for all the children. 

she is our link to our future child. 

the meeting was full of information. what to expect in a child referral. what to look for. what's important. and what we want. 

are we willing to accept a child the same day or within 24 hours? 

YES! sign us up. we are ready to go.

let's do this!

thankfully, it worked out beautifully for my mom to watch rowan in seattle while we went to this meeting. 

it couldn't have gone any better!

we are so thankful to have such supportive family! 

and after the meeting we all went out for some fun in seattle! 

pikes place market!

the great wheel. 

don't let this picture fool you. 

i was terrified the first two go arounds. 

that thing goes up HIGH. 

but it was a blast and was so great to go and experience it. 

on our way back we stopped for dinner on the water in tacoma for some chowda! :) 

unfortunately, we didn't make it to soccer practice.

but this day was way better. 

The Bill.

let's be honest here.

adoption is expensive.

but we know it will be worth it. 

and we know that God will provide. 

and he has so far. 

this is our 3rd invoice we have gotten. 

and each time they get bigger and bigger. 

depending on where the child comes from (which program - CHOICES or foster care) will depend on if we get one more invoice. 

but if it's through CHOICES, the last one will be a doozy. 

i want to document, keep track, remember, whatever you want to call it. 

and this was a big moment. this is the kind of money that you don't get back and it's like ok HERE GOES! 

so we mailed in this invoice on 09.19.13

to be honest, it's hard to write a check or to see that money go, but i was SO excited to finally get to the step where they could bill us for their services. that we were actually in a position to be using the services -- that meant we were moving forward and getting one step closer to our baby!! 

Fall is here!

fall is my favorite season. 
between the rainy days and nice sunny yet breezy days, it's a perfect balance of weather. 
the leaves turn a beautiful color and we get to dress in layers. 
it becomes acceptable to eat or drink pumpkin five times a day. 
we get to drink tea every day. 
we get to go to the pumpkin patch. seriously. love the pumpkin patch. 
not to mention it's halloween, my anniversary and my birthday all in the month of october. 
actually all in a 3 day stretch. 
i love fall. 

rainbow carrots. 

i still have some carrots left out in the garden that we pull as we need. 

cut the last of the lavender blossoms.

our sunflowers that rowan and i grew! they ended up being a nice variety and next year i will be planting a LOT more. 

i love everything that comes with fall. 

{except the heating bill}

Treehouse!!

back in september my very talented, handsome, funny and smart hubby (who paid me to write that) built rowan her dream treehouse.

she is beyond thrilled and it was the cutest thing to watch her run up and squeeze her daddy when it was all finished. 

since it's been built she has brought everyone up there including grandpa and grandma and had them squeeze through the small hole in the floor. she LOVES it. 

the beginning.

there he is. mohawk and beard. that is a very RARE sighting. 

see that tiny hole? that's the hole she drags people up. :)

and this girl loves her broom. 

and her house. it's HER house. and she totally already decorated it with unique drawings and scotch tape. 

atta girl. 

Approved Home Study!!!

oh my, all that's busy.

we have been so busy and i have been so anxious to blog, but other things have taken priority in these days that just seem to be getting shorter.

exciting news first:

September 17th -- i got the call! the big call! well... 2nd to biggest call. :)

something that i know i will never forget. 

being at an indoor play center with some friends and our kiddos. 

it was loud in there with all of the air circulation and it has cement floors and walls and it's very large which makes all the noise spread. 

laughter. fans. arcade game noises in the background. 

after checking my email for the 30th time by 11 a.m. and i finally got that call. 

it was our caseworker!

guess what?!?!? 

she had the final staffing and we had an APPROVED HOME STUDY!!! 

what an exciting, exhilarating, relief-yet-anxious filled phone call!

"CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE BEEN APPROVED!"

those sweet, sweet words! who would have thought that those words could sound so good. 

it makes me want to cry just thinking about it. 

all the work, time, effort, tears, joy and stress that went into that home study. 

and it was over. our mountain we had climbed -- we had made it to the top!

and on that top of the mountain -- we also got the news that they had gotten my Oregon clearance! seriously. same day. what a blessed day!