One More Week To Go!

WHOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Crazy 8's! Angela tagged me...

8 Things I’m Passionate About...

1. My husband
2. My dogs - Whippet, Scarlett and Greyhound, Annabelle Lee
3. My friends
4. My family
5. Speech Language Pathology
6. Pumpkin Pie
7. Sushi
8. Jude

*this list is in no particular order, so please don't submit complaints


8 Things I Want To Do Before I Die...

1. Travel more!
2. Raise children who know they are very loved
3. Get a PhD
4. Stop caring about what other people think
5. Figure out where I'm supposed to live
6. Own a classic VW bus
7. Stop being a perfectionist in compartmentalized areas
8. Laugh every single day


8 Things I Say Often...

1. Thank you please
2. I need my medicine (wine)
3. I love da babies! (da babies= Scarlett and Annabelle)
4. Life's hard work sometimes.
5. I love you.
6. Do we have any wine?
7. How are da babies?
8. Seriously.


8 TV Shows I’ve Recently Watched...

1. The Office (I recently was introduced and LOVE it)
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
4. Man Vs. Wild (good viewing when he's not eating)
5. Myth Busters
6. Friends (I still TiVo them and love them)
7. Gilmore Girls (Tommy believes that I am Lorelei, or that I secretly wrote the show)
8. Brothers and Sisters


8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over...

1. I enjoy music, but don't know anything about it and probably couldn't name a total of 8 songs if I tried. But, I know I do like music that says things like "Everything's Gonna Be OK" and "All You Need Is Love"


8 Things That Attract Me To My Best Friends...

1. Funniness
2. Kindness
3. Thinkers
4. Openmindedness
5. Truthfullness
6. Smartness
7. Fun-ness
8. Wine (not to be confused with whine)


8 Things I’ve Learned (or been reminded of) This Past Year...

1. Jude is meant to be our baby
2. I love my husband more than I knew was possible
3. Good things happen when you keep trying (unless you're trying to see your new niece)
4. Not to try to change people
5. Not to listen to the critiques of crazy people
6. That I'm good at what I do
7. Sometimes it's cloudy for a whole week in Hawaii
8. How to 'blog'


8 People I Think Should Do “8”...
1. Nicole
and 7 other people who want to!

I have a beautiful new niece!

I'm in Flagstaff, AZ (it only took me 28 1/2 hours to get here ... The details of the break-down in the middle of the desert by myself: It was a 'wait hours for a tow truck to take me to a middle of nowhere repair shop, where warranty people take an hour to approve the repair and then it's too late to fix that day, so I rent the only rental car in town, a big non-4-wheel-drive truck, then continue on my journey through very bad, icy, snowy weather, have to stop at another middle of nowhere town, stay in motel, and get hot chocolate' type of journey) ... By the end it was more than worth it because when I arrived I saw my new one day old niece, and she is spectacular! I will have lots of pictures when I get home. She is a perfect little being (she weighed in at 5 pounds 9 ounces) ... I can't believe that I'm leaving in 8 days! I feel like I have so much to do ... I hope my journey home is less eventful :) I'm helping to watch my nephew, Darrigan, so I'll write when I get home ...

Just 2 More Weeks!

2 weeks from today until we leave for Ethiopia! WhoooHoooo!
In the meantime, I'm heading up to Northern California for the weekend to visit Nanny (Tommy's fabulous grandma) and family. Next week I'm going to Flagstaff, AZ to visit my sis and her fam...Apparently, I like to keep very busy before I go to Africa!

7/21/07

Can you think of a luckier combination of numbers? Our Judah just has the best birthday. Don't be jealous, it's just factual information. I know everyone has numbers that work for them- but his numbers are famously lucky and definitely have the most street cred in the luck department.
Further evidence:
Tommy has a dollar with a stamp on it, so you can trace where it's been (I probably would never notice such a thing, but my detail oriented man was on it). Well, guess what www.wheresgeorge.com had to say? It was first tracked on 7/21/2007! Jude's birthday! ...and we got the dollar on our babymoon! Neat, huh? This was our first money tracking venture, so it's not like we kept playing and finally won. I'm thinking that after this extraordinary occurrence, the lottery should be next. Although I'm pretty sure we already hit the lottery with Judah :)
Update:
Our airline tickets...booked! Our hotel reservations...confirmed! Our paperwork...complete! Packing...um, yup...haven't started! I DID make a list...I should stop being tough on myself and just accept that procrastination and me are too tight...I can't just abandon it now.

Happy Half Birthday Baby Jude!

Today, our baby Judah is 6 months old! We are coming to get you very soon, baby Jude! Whoo hooo!

Travel dates!

We are scheduled to first hold our precious Jude on Monday, February 11th! We are planning to arrive in Addis on the 9th and then pace around for about 40 hours. I can't wait to pace! Now I need to start packing and organizing and doing all the stuff I was too terrified to do before. I'm a backpacker at heart (meaning I'm intensely loyal to the practice of not bringing anything, it really cuts down on the actually packing- a process I'm not stellar at) how do I pack for this? How much stuff does Jude really need? A bottle and books, right? Hmm...I have a lot to learn. Watch and laugh!

Jude is ours! All ours! Really and truly ours!

Thank you for all of your love and support! It has meant so very much to us!
We are the happiest people in the universe today...Very proud parents of the most amazing, smiley, rotund, little man! At the moment I'm too overwhelmed with emotion to type straight...JUDE is OURS! I'm a MOMMY! Tommy's a DADDY! You can't imagine the celebratory boogies and songs that will be performed in our house today...

Someone in New Hampshire LOVES Jude!

Today, in the midst of my nervous ranting and pacing, I was delivered a package. It was addressed to our family ... Not just Danielle. Since I was legendarily patient to wait for Tommy to get home before I first laid my eyes on Jude, I decided I had enough good karma to rip the box open with much fervor. So I did. Inside I found such a beautifully wrapped present, that I had to take a picture and send it to Tommy ... so he could experience it with me.



Inside the beautiful boxes were the CUTEST clothes ever AND there was the softest stuffed animal. They were all from my BBF, Lori! I was surprised and touched and just in awe over her thoughtfulness! She's just the best!
It's just so strange how whenever I am having a down moment or a nervous moment, my friends just seem to time their inspirational level of thoughtfulness perfectly to let me know that there is SO much goodness that it just has to all work out. Here is a picture of the crib full of goodies that Lori sent (Jude is gonna look spectacular):

The hour count down has begun!

It's less than 24 hours until we find out about our court date! It's currently 3 in the morning in Addis, so today (hopefully) is our day. I have been SUPER anxious. I'm going to go drink a glass of wine or two, listen to Bob Marley, and light more candles.

Pictures! Jude's smiling!

Merry Christmas Judah!

The Ethiopian Christmas known as Ganna is celebrated today. We love and miss you Jude!

More Complaints!

Now I've had too many formal complaints (yes, in writing) to ignore, so I need to continue to add addendums to my list.

Examples of the complaints:
"I noticed there are two people missing being mentioned from this post, I won't say who, but I'll give you a hint...mom is one of them."
"What about your mother? Is she chopped liver? I guess she is...."
"Now the world knows that you are a mother forgetter."
"My sister forgot to mention her mother in her blog and she had 32 + 1 chances to."
"I'm happy to be number 1, but you forgot about my dogs."

I'm pretty sure that my 32 things about ME list was not meant to be a popularity contest among my immediate family members. I should have known better than to post anything so controversial. It is obviously VERY important to an extremely small subset of people to "make it" onto my blog. So here it goes:

34. Mom, I love you. You are stupendous and make the world's best soup.

Just what I needed, now I'm even older!

And one for good luck...

I mentioned 32 things about me- but since I only spent 4.3 minutes on my list, I forgot to mention a certain someone and received informal complaints:

"My sister forgot to mention me in her blog and she had 32 chances to."

So, here is my one for good luck:
33. Nicole, my baby sister, who lives in Thailand, is the person I laugh with the most/hardest, until my stomach actually hurts. She is also the second best rafter* (in the pool, I'm not sure about her abilities in other water forms. This is not to doubt her talent in more traditionally rafted waterways- I just haven't seen it). Nicole has all the spunk of the youngest and is the best bruncher and dancer I know. She doesn't sleep.

*I'm the best.

Pictures from our vacation!

This is a picture of us in San Francisco on my birthday!



In Hawaii, making my biggest decision of the week...Mai Tai, Pina Colada, or Blue Hawaii?




Beautiful Hawaii!



The view from our hotel! Amazing!

Happy 2008!

We had a wonderful and relaxing time in Hawaii! It was great seeing friends, hiking to waterfalls, drinking pina coladas, eating shrimp, and swimming with big fishies. Days pass much more slowly in Hawaii- but the week just flew by. Now we are just two weeks away from our court date- and I'm still feeling very happy, slightly anxious, but happy. 2008 will be the most memorable, life changing, and celebratory year yet!
Cheers to 2008! Happy New Year!