Project Mode

Whenever George is gone for a while or on call, I often go into "project mode." I think it keeps me from getting lonely or something. So here are some of the things I've been doing for the past month while he has been in Ft Hood .... (Mom, this post is mainly for you since you wanted to see all of this.) I'm happy I was able to get a few things done, but it is funny how long these jobs have been on the "to do" list.

Cleaning

The first week I cleaned and de-cluttered my house. It felt great! Ever time I deep clean like that I say to myself "this would be so much easier if you just MAINTAIN a clean house." My least favorite chore is cleaning the showers/tubs. I really hate that job. I think it is because it takes me FOREVER and that I give myself the "maintaining" talk about a hundred times. This time was a big more fun because I tried out a new tool. My mother-in-law gave me the Black-and-Decker ScumBuster Xtreme for Christmas and I finally put it to use. I tried mopping with it and didn't like that as much, but I thought it did a fabulous job cleaning my shower... all the crevasses of the tile, the floor, etc. So, you might want to try it out! My shower looks great! Now if I can just maintain it...

Another job I did was washing my 1st floor windows. Not the windex way. The good way. It was again my first time to use some new tools. For my birthday this year, some of my siblings bought me window washing supplies. Man! Did it make a difference! This will only mean something to my San Antonio friends, but I did this job a few days after it literally RAINED MUD. This job was much more fun because although it took a while, my windows really look good. I feel like I am just looking straight outside... not through a window. My sister told me it is the razor that really does the trick. It is also surprising how dirty the windows get on the inside even if you don't touch them... they just get dust or whatever on them. Thanks Lacey for all the tips.

I know the "nesting phase" is reserved for pregnant ladies, but I couldn't help but wonder if that applies to expecting adoptive mothers too. I've been going through lots of stuff and trying to de-junk my life and cleaning all sorts of stuff. In fairness, when I was pregnant with Lucy, I read about the "nesting phase" in that "What to Expect when you are Expecting" book and asked George if he thought I was in it. He said I'm continually in that phase... pregnant or not. However, I don't think he was thinking of my cleaning habits... just my "always having some home improvement or some other project on the backburner" mentality. Maybe its just "spring cleaning fever" that got me in the mood. Either way, I am definitely happier when I have a clean house.

Sewing

I've been sewing some baby blankets for my wonderful Omaha friends, Jessica and Mindy, who are expecting babies in April. I can't post pictures though in case they are regular readers of this blog. :)

Curtains

My other project was putting up curtains I bought at the next-door-neighborhood yard sale. I paid $5 a piece for them and they are great quality! I've been looking for cloth for over a year because I just wanted to drape some cloth around some hooks my mom bought me for my birthday (two birthdays ago... Nov 06... funny). So, here is the before and after.

Now, I realize if this were HGTV, they would have removed the lovely exercise bike and the clutter. But this is not HGTV. Plus note that I started this project at 9 pm and in the "after" pictures Lucy is up. She was very interested in what I was doing. Luckily the whole thing took 30-45 minutes to put up (I had to do a lot of experiementing). I haven't decided if I should keep the cloth like it is though. I wasn't thinking I'd do scallops at the beginning of all of this, but that is what happened.

The Big Project

The final big project was fixing up my spare bedroom. I have been meaning to paint it FOREVER, but seemed to always manage to do other things. I had it all painted when George got home and he was quite surprised. However, he had to help me with the wood trim. He doesn't love projects like that, but I think it turned out nice. Again, here are some before and after shots:

Lucy looking for her Easter basket

Is it under the couch pillows?

No, but I found a plate!

In the closet?

I found it! I found it!

Lucy happily discovering all the good stuff.

Happy Easter!

Family photo after church

There were lots of people that were more interesting than the photographer....

Easter dinner

Elina & Wendy Kim (friends from the neighborhood), Jennifer Yao (Wendy's sis), George, Maricruz Bolanos (mission friend), Kate Meier (neighborhood friend & I serve with her in YW)... Bogie (Wendy's hubby) was rocking baby Eli so he missed the photo

We had chicken cordon bleu, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, salad, asparagus, raspberry triffle and cupcakes. Yum! Yum! We were stuffed, but not too full to eat a jello egg! I started the tradition of making Easter jello eggs the first year we were married. My brother Benji and I used to love to make them. It is not George's favorite tradition. In fact, he thinks they are kind of sick. However, its lots more fun now because Lucy LOVES it even more than I do! Its just too bad I didn't take a picture of everyone eating them.

Another of my favorite Tripp Easter traditions is that George always buys me an Easter lily. It makes the house smell SO good. After its finished blooming, we plant it in the flower garden. The only sad thing is that we don't get to enjoy much of it before we move. The last summer we lived in Omaha we heard they were absolutely beautiful, but we just missed it! After four years of lilies, I bet it really smelled good! It just takes a little time for them to take off. The lily that I planted last year is growing well, but it probably won't bloom until next year.

Elina, Lucy, and Staley

Three girls in heels!

Great News!

Well... we have WONDERFUL NEWS!!!! We have been chosen to be adoptive parents. Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are SO HAPPY!!!!

Here's the shortened version (and the story will continue :)

About a week after we were approved for adoption, our social worker told me he had shown our profile to a birth mom here in San Antonio. Two weeks later he told us she had narrowed it down to two couples and we were one of them. While we were on vacation in South Padre Island, he called and told us the mom had more questions about us... specifically asking what we do to get out of the house, weekly activities, stuff like that. It was important to her that we were active people who liked to get out and do stuff. About an hour later, he called and said she wanted to meet us. We were really excited but didn't know what that exactly meant. Brad (social worker) told us that she was 85% sure she wanted to choose our family, but felt like she couldn't be 100% until she met us.

So a week later, George drove down from Ft Hood and we met Roger and April. They are really great people who felt this child didn't come to them at a time when they could support it. They want to go to school and do other things. We had a great visit and from the first I could tell they only wanted the best for their child. Up until then, we hadn't told anyone about this so we called our family Friday night and filled them in a bit. We told them it wasn't a for sure thing, but we felt good about how things were progressing.

A week later (this morning) we met Wanda. She couldn't make it to the first meeting and is April's grandma (who has been her mom since birth) so naturally she wanted to talk with us. She had more questions for us (which was good) and we also felt we got to know Roger and April better. Then April told us her mind was made up.... she was choosing us! I wanted to do the Toyota jump of joy! (I actually did do the jump plus a few more from the 'ol cheerleading days when we got to the parking lot... if you want me to demonstrate for any of you, I'd be happy to :). So exciting!!!

So our expected arrival is a GIRL ... due June 7! Nothing is ever completely sure with adoption, but we've felt so good about their family. They are good people. It has been an emotional couple of weeks thinking about the gift they are giving us. We are so grateful someone is trusting us to raise their little girl and can't wait for this little one to join our family. Its so fun to think of being parents again. Its times like this I wish I were better with words so I could adequately express my feelings, but its sort of difficult.

Our social worker said we can cancel our internet profile since Roger and April have officially selected us, but for those of you who are curious: In 1 month and 1 day, we had 9,628 total hits (which includes a lot of stuff) on our adoption.com website. Our LDS Family Services site doesn't have a counter, so we don't know how many looked at that one. I think its cool that the internet reaches so many people. I know some of those were hits from our family and friends, so THANKS for checking us out. It really meant a lot to me when people mentioned they read our profiles and told me how they felt or parts they liked. Also, thanks for your faith and prayers. You never know how long it will take for the right child to come your family, but we've really felt grateful for your support and thoughtful concern.

Now we are counting down ... 2 1/2 months to go ....

Here is George in the car calling his mom with the great news!

The Happy New Expecting Parents

I don't like my "gummy" smile so I try not to smile too big for pictures, but I couldn't help myself!!!

(how do you like the PINK captions? That is as fancy as I get. :)

The pink shopping monster!

Alright, so I realize I've had tons of posts lately, but with George in Ft. Hood, I think its kind of fun for him to have a record of stuff that has happened so he can check it out when he comes back.


On Monday, Lucy and I went shopping at Burlington Coat Factory. I used to think this store was lame (not sure the reason... maybe I thought they just carried coats???). It is my very favorite place to find little girl church dresses (because they have a large selection and some of the fancy, poofy kind) and swimsuits (because they come with a matching cover-up and sometimes a hat all for $12.99 and under... great deal!) Trips there are always bad for the credit card and for my time. I could spend hours there and buy TONS of stuff (even after narrowing down to only the best deals). Buying Lucy clothes is definitely a weakness, but oh so fun! Apparently, I've rubbed off on my little girl because she loves it too! She goes down the isles saying, "Oooooooooo. Look at this. This is cute", holds the item up to her chest and sticks her foot out for the pose. She'll also say, "Do you like this one? Or this one?" and generally picks whatever is pink because "that's my favrit". She walks down the isle and finds all the cute stuff and hands it to me. Luckily she still thinks its fun to put it all back where it goes. Usually she wants to try on multiple dresses and dance in the isle to see how they twirl. She is bugged when they page someone or make an announcement over the loud speaker because the music stops. Right now I still think its cute and funny, but I'm sure there will come the day when I wonder why I created a shopping monster!




This time I tried doing the video with youtube. Hopefully it will come out a little better. :)

Happy St. Patricks Day!

March 17, 2007

March 17, 2008

Yep, the skirts are the same. But not a whole lot else is! My little baby is growing up! This year she picked out green panties because they had to match. And sadly it was easy for us to find clovers this year... my lawn is full of them.

I emailed the moms in the neighborhood and we had a "green picnic" at the park on base at Lackland. If it wasn't for about 100 wasps (who must have liked green food too), it would have been perfect. Nonetheless, the weather co-operated and we had a fun time. We went to the base last St. Patricks Day too (just our little family) so I can't resist posting a couple more 2007 vs 2008 pictures.

50's Sock Hop

Our church had a 50's sock hop last night. This is how Lucy spent the good part of the night... dancing away. This video posted SO dark, so this viewing might only be worthwhile if you are Lucy's grandparents (who think everything she does is cute :). You'll just have to take my word for it, she was really grooving all night long. Kids have so much energy!

They had popcorn and root beer and music for everyone to boogie down! It was really fun to watch some of the couples in our ward swing dance. They were great! I need to learn some moves. Megan was Lucy's solid dancing partner throughout the night. She broke away a few times, but went right back to Meg. George is in Ft Hood so he couldn't make it which is too bad because I think Lucy would have loved dancing with her daddy. We miss him!

Megan and Lucy

These two are great buddies, but they can also cause some trouble! I was keeping my eye on them dancing in the opposite corner of the gym when my friend Tovi said, "Can you see what they are doing over there?" They had dumped the popcorn buckets from the table onto the floor and were jumping & smashing it into tiny bits. What fun and what a mess!

Megan, Lucy, and Kylie pose

Sipping root beer floats... how & why the zebras are in the picture, I'll never know.

Easter Egg Hunt

Here are some photos of the playgroup Easter Egg Hunt. They had tons of eggs all around the soccer field. Lucy thought it was great fun .. especially when she found out there was chocolate inside!

A trip to South Padre Island

Here are some pics of our little trip to South Padre Island. We had a great time! We went to the beach first thing Wednesday morning. The wind was pretty strong and Lucy loved flying the kite. George only had to chase it down the beach a few times. :) As we'd walk along Lucy would reach for a handful of sand and throw it. She thought it was so fun and she also loved to chase the seagulls. I thought the weather was a bit chilly but it wasn't long before Lucy stripped down to her swimsuit and jumped the waves. She'd squeal with delight. Its moments like these that I can't help thinking, "Thank goodness for a fun dad!" I was the boring mother who held everyones stuff (including the kite still flying) while they splashed in the waves. It was too cold to actually do real swimming, but it was fun to play in the water. We also built some a sea-shell embellished sandcastle. Lucy loved mixing the sand and water and called herself "Ratatouille". Other fun activities included a visit to a sea-life museum place, buying grapefruits at the fruitstands (DELICIOUS!!!), and eating lots of good seafood.

We also went to Brownsville for a day. My good friend Wendy's parents live there so she helped us out by telling us the good stuff to do. We went to the zoo which was actually really good. Because its a nice climate, most stuff is outdoors and I like that. Some of those indoor exhibits are so stinky! The Omaha zoo is still one of my favorites, but I thought this one was better than San Antonio's in many ways. The Brownsville zoo had a really good gorilla exhibit. They were really active and we liked to watch them wrestle. There were two tiny gorilla babies and we liked to watch them cling to their mothers as they climbed all over the place. Afterwards we went to Wendy's dad's Chinese restaurant and that was really yummy. We had a good time but George had orginially ranked Brownsville as one of his top places to live and now I think he just thinks it was a nice place to visit! :) As we were looking for the zoo, we got a little lost and ended up at the international bridge. We promptly u-turned before we crossed the border, but I thought the whole thing was kind of funny. We commented several times on the wild Brownsville drivers and now we were among them!

It was great to just get away for a little while! George is in Ft Hood for the next month so it was fun to have a little vacation with him before he had to leave.

Happy Birthday to Geo!

George's 31st birthday is actually not until Friday, but we are leaving on vacation (to South Padre Island) tomorrow, so I thought I'd write a little something today. The vacation is partly to celebrate his big day. He LOVES beach vacations (... I'm not sure if South Padre is his favorite beach, but it is a beach nonetheless...)

Here are some fun pictures of George throughout the years...





































Here are some of the reasons I love George:

• He's remembers things. He is really good at remembering what kind of food I like, special days in our life (he always leaves a cute note on the anniversary of the day we got engaged), and other details. However, today we played "Concentration" memory game with Lucy and I caught him cheating! It really cracked me up that he'd look at the sides of the bean bags to see if he could see any matches. I don't think this was due to poor memory, but just to see if how many he could get. I just thought it was funny he'd cheat in a game for 2 year olds!


• He has a layed-back attitude and is a peacemaker. I think this is the reason we get along so well.


• He is a great dad to Lucy. He is a lot of fun and wrestles with her. One of their favorite tricks starts with George laying on his back and Lucy standing in his hands. He lifts his hands up and she yells, "Go Cowboys!"


• He will do the aerobics DVD with me.


• He is a good listener.
• He trusts me. I really appreciate that George doesn't make rules on what I do with my time or how I spend our money. He lets me do my own thing. I honestly think I could do a lot better in the financial department, but he's really nice to me when I come home from a major shopping spree of "deals I could not pass up." He's also really good to let me buy whatever decorations I'd like. This has slowed down since we are no longer near Gordmans, but I still come home with some "treasures" that sit in the spare bedroom for a while until I figure out where I want to put them.
• He's now more willing to bet on things. For those of you who know George well, he is ultra-conservative as far making sure the things he says are factual. In fact, he tends to underplay things rather than exaggerate (like me). He's now willing to stick his neck out a little and that has been more fun. Our weekend bets were on the percentage of redheads in the US (2% - George was dead on) and in the world (toss up - somewhere between 0.1%-1%) and how many vanilla pudding mixes are in our cupboard (7 - George totally lost).
• George is a good sleeper. Once I told George that if he could stay up until midnight, I'd let him buy the truck he is dying to buy. I told him this at 11:50pm, but he couldn't make it!! He fell asleep mid-sentence. This has been a good thing with his profession and as a father. He can take care of those little kids in the hospital or help Lucy in the middle of the night and go right back to sleep. (I must admit, this quality can be slightly annoying when I am awake for hours.)
• He is kind and genuinely wants others to be happy.