Random Updates

Work is kicking my butt these days. I'm not really fond of the 10 hour day (11 if you count driving). I've had a million blog topics running around in my head, which I even went so far as to write the titles down on yellow post it notes. Oh well, I guess every hour of work is another dollar towards bringing Gabriel home. Anyway I thought I would post a few updates since its been awhile.

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On the adoption front. . .. our dossier was sent to Guatemala on Feb.1 !!!!!!!!!! So they should have been able to officially start our case last week! Hooray, hooray!! It did end up being a bit stressful though (refer to my post "Apparently FedEx doesn't do Shipping"). A few weeks had gone by and we still couldn't track the return package (from the Consulate to the agency). I would obsessively check the FedEx site every hour just for it to spell out to me in giant purple letters, "No information available". Finally, last Monday I called the Consulate and asked them if anything was wrong with the paperwork and she very nicely told me that it was shipped out already under a different airbill. Son of a. .. . . So I called the agency head office and asked them if they received it. She put me on hold to go look for about 3 minutes, while I listed in my head all the ways I would totally snap if she didn't have it. She finally popped back on the phone while I was mentally picturing myself taking a running charge at the glass window and lunging myself down from the sixth floor of our building, while my boss muttered under his breath, "damn, now whose going to do data collection". She said, "yes, we received it and we overnighted it to Guatemala on Feb. 1". I then commenced the happy dance in my swivel office chair. You know what this means. .. .something actually worked out for us. AND, not only just worked out. . .but worked out smoothly. . .well, sort of!

I also took another step towards making Gabriel seem more real to me. My boss and I had a meeting about what I want to do once he comes home. I told him I wanted to take six months off. He said company policy actually allows people who are adopting to take up to a year (a year!) Wow, maybe my company is nicer on people than I thought. They also provide $3000 in adoption expense reimbursement, but unfortunately I don't qualify for that because I am not a "real employee". I'm what they call "supplemental" which basically means part time with no benefits even though I work 50 hours a week. In the end, he said that I was going to take the six months no matter whether he said I could or not (true) but he understood that I was just giving him a heads up. I also told him, that we weren't sure what I was going to do after the six months were up. He said they could be flexible with my hours, within reason. So we are still deciding whether I will stay full time (very unlikely), go part time at this job (possible), or quit all together and stay home during the day and then work a night/weekend job to avoid daycare (very possible). I probably change my mind everyday on this. Everytime someone pisses me off at work I think, "Oh man, I am sooooo out of here. . .and its all your fault". Its kind of fun, like I'm wielding some sort of secret power.

Finally, don't you hate it when unloading the dishwasher turns into a major kitchen overhaul? Anyone. .. anyone. .. .OK, maybe its just me then. Yesterday, I got up after a blissful sleep in until 7AM and started the coffee. While it was brewing I started to unload and reload the dishwasher. This led to a huge reorganization of my spices (I have a lot of spices). I moved them all into a different spice rack (that shades them from light) and removed my other two racks from the kitchen. This freed up some counter space and some wall space above the sink. So I needed something to put above the sink to hide the giant holes where the dry wall anchors were. Then, I decided that the counters were too crowded and I didn't like the jar holding all of my random utensils. I removed the jar and then charged my husband to utilize a cupboard (that is currently only holding plastic grocery bags and cat food) to build me a corkboard rack that would slide out of the cupboard where I can hang all of the utensils. This of course involved a trip to Home Depot and my husband (who was not all that happy about being pulled into my overhaul when all he wanted to do was drink his coffee and do his crossword puzzle). This all led to talk of removing the key rack on the wall and moving the clock so I can buy and hang this awesome cow picture I saw at JoAnn Fabrics (I love cows). Anyhow, the kitchen looks a lot better now.