Any Similar Revival

 Sorry it's been so long! I meant to post on Saturday and say I'd be gone for a few days, but I got too busy, as usual.

I was away doing this:

But most of the time, I was doing this:

Jordan and I headed out to Brooklyn to help these folks:

And drive these two back to Ohio,

where they will be living in Columbus for the next three years!

Uncle Jordan got to meet his sweetie-pie nephew for the first time:

And I had fun taking his picture. Over and over and over. . .

Jordan and I drove out Saturday, and as usual on long car trips, we got super-punchy and had some hysterical moments working the word "sasquatch" into every sentence. You really had to be there. On Sunday, we went to the beach, and on Monday, J & Luke drove the BIG truck, and I drove Willow and Aidan in my car. Aidan didn't like the car ride, and he let us know it. All eight hours of the trip.

More pics:

When we got to Ohio, Aidan got to meet some other people, like Chad and Great-aunt Cynthia. And Grandpa Fodor got to hold him again, yay!

I get a kick out of this sign every time I drive past it. I have imagined all sorts of elaborate schemes to make it work, involving ground chicken and stuffing, and Chad still says we need to go through the drive-thru and order it:

"Hi, I'd like two chicken dipped cones, please."

I love gardening. I planted my veggies this year with much enjoyment and anticipation, and for a garden that mostly does NOT have full sun, I am happy with the results. My beans are kind of anemic, my squash has been slow, and my tomatoes are small, but plentiful. (Except for the 8ft monster cherry tomato plant that has already taken over the walkway and is going for the driveway next). I have found that I do really well with lettuce, chard, spinach, and herbs (or as my dad would say, the "easy" stuff. thanks dad). So I am going to do a late summer planting of greens and see how we do. Anyways, here is a lovely basket of produce from my garden, which made me happy and giggly.

We went to Granny's last night for dinner, because my dad and Debbie are in town. For the most part, it was a very nice evening. My brother still has his knack for taking over and monopolizing every situation, so that part wasn't so pleasant. Nonetheless, I was happy to see my dad, even if it was just for a few hours.

He hasn't changed much:

And this lady's garden puts mine to shame. She's like the Garden Fairy or something.

In homestudy news, the meeting this morning went very well. I came away feeling very positive about the process. Our worker, Natalie, said she's shooting to have the homestudy completed by the first week of October, and as the process goes very quickly after that, we could have a placement by the end of October!

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Saturday was our eleventh anniversary! We had a very fun day, full of adventures and good food.

We started the day with a trip to the Medina Farmers' Market, where we filled up our bags with corn, onions, green onions, luscious blackberries, wonderful grapes, blueberries, squash, broccoli, lettuce, and peaches.

Then, to be really romantic, we went to the dump. We had some old computer junk to get rid of.

We followed this with a super-nutritious lunch at Sky Way:

We topped off our day with a concert at Blossom, complete with AWESOME picnic.

Just to let you know, because I know some of you are very interested. OUr first homestudy meeting has been post-poned till Tuesday.

I feel like a kid on a snow day!

I'm not going to say that tomorrow when our case worker comes for the first time for our preliminary home study meeting. But after yesterday, it seems like I could.

I've been anxious all week about this meeting. I know it's not the real thing, or the safety audit, or the in-depth interview part, but still, I've been in a funk about it. And being the perfectionist I am, I expect my home, my person, and my presentation to be perfect. Or else. Or else I'm a failure. I'm trying to get over this.

Anyways, yesterday, as I was working at perfecting my back yard, cleaning out buckets and buckets of weeds and ivy, I discovered horror #1. A dead mouse, floating in a neglected bucket of rainwater next to the compost heap. Eeewwwww. I'm hoping it was the one in our house last week, because that would Serve It Right. It's still there, because the Removal of Dead Things is Chad's job.

After coming inside and entertaining the aunties with tea and whining, I picked up Emma, our fluffy, fluffy cat, and I noticed a terrible smell. Guess what happens when your fluffy, fluffy cat has tummy trouble and wet poo? That's right. It sticks all over her fur. Horror #2. So I bathed the cat, no small feat, and incurred her intense hatred for about an hour. Then she forgot or forgave me and decided she loved me again. Which was great, except she was still sick and still going, and I didn't really want her to sit on my lap. I scooped the box multiple times all day, and then, as I was getting ready to go to bed, I noticed the MOST horrifying thing of all: Emma had sat on my bed with her poopy backside. POOP IN MY BED! HORROR!

You must understand that this kind of thing just DOESN'T happen around here. It's not allowed to.  I'm feeling a bit unhinged now, like the universer is conspiring against me. Or at least all the furry creatures around here are.

I apologize for the disgusting nature of this post. Believe me, it was worse in real life.

So, yesterday, I woke up, rolled over and said in my best morning voice, "Hey honey, I want to have an adventure today. Let's go to Ikea, and we can have lunch with Kirk & Missy." I wasn't expecting such a quick agreement, but honey said, "Ok. But I have to take a shower first." Well, duh.

So we drove out towards Pittsburgh and met Kirk, Missy, Cade and Kylie at Bahama Breeze (which is fast becoming "our" place with Kirk & Missy) for lunch. The kids were funny. They had just seen Uncle Chad a few weeks ago, so they knew who he was. I was more of a mystery though. They called me "Miss Ally" all day, even though we all tried to convince them that I am truly "Aunt Ally." And they asked Chad, right off the bat, "Where are your kids?" because I think they've been told about our plans to foster and adopt. We had to tell them that we don't have them yet, but they are still very interested in their future cousins. After about fifteen minutes, Kylie decided that I was OK, and she kept leaning over her booster seat to hug me and plant wet kisses on my face.

After lunch, we braved the ENORMOUS crowds at Ikea. We found most of what we were looking for, but they were sold out of the main thing I went there for (large food storage containers.) Oh well, I guess we'll have to go back again. Shoot!

Kirk and Missy wanted to show us the new church where Kirk is now working, so we headed south a bit. It's a huge, beautiful building, but I opted to stay with Missy while the guys checked it out. Kylie had sort of passed out:

Cade was still trying to understand my role in his life. I snapped this photo, and then he asked, "What is your name?"

They drove us by the house they've just bought, an adorable little house on a nice lot in a lovely neighborhood. I'm so happy for them in their new life!

When it was time to say goodbye, Cade had finally warmed up to me:

Kylie was awake:

And Uncle Chad and Cade were still best buds:

Chad and Kirk were talking football or something, and Cade really wanted to tell Chad something, so he asked me to get his attention. Then he smiled and said, "Hey Miss Ally, you could say 'Uncle Chad, you're being paged.'"

We drove home, tired, hot, happy, and somewhat in a hurry. We picked up Linda and went to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner. I unwisely imbibed a very large and quite strong margarita and so entertained Chad and Linda for the rest of the meal. Note to self: avoid large margaritas, or just tequila in general. I get too giggly and remind myself of my dad. Scary.

So this morning, I'm feeling slow, sleepy, and my tummy is burbly. I'm blaming the all the rich, copious amounts of food I consumed yesterday during our adventure.  Was it worth it? YES!

Yesterday, my dad, whom I have NOT seen in several YEARS (that's a LONG time) told me that he is coming to Ohio for a visit in a few weeks! I talked to him yesterday, and he was all smug and proud of himself for knowing about our mouse problem. I asked him how he knew and he said, "I read your blog!" Wow! It's so great when the elderly take advantage of technology. (That was totally for fun, Dad. I don't think of you as elderly. And to get you back for thinking I was a total weenie about the mouse.)

Actually, it's funny, this generation gap thing. The people of my generation think nothing of putting our life out there for all to see. We have profiles on Facebook and update them daily. This is what I'm eating, listening to, reading, watching. These are my other friends. Here are my latest photos. Here are my stories. The older people in my life are baffled, for the most part. "Why would you want people to read all that? Why do you want them to know all of your business?" And I am baffled right back: why wouldn't I want that? I'm not going to put ages on this, because there are exceptions to the rule, but in general, younger people crave these virtual connections. If I can go online and read about my college friends' lives, friends I haven't seen in almost ten years, you bet I'm going to. I can see what my cousins in Paraguay, Canada, Mansfield, Brooklyn, and California are doing. That is so valuable to me! And they can see what I am doing. It has drawn us closer to each other, it has made us more acquainted. I love them better for it. I don't understand this privacy issue of the older generations. Heidi, who is older but NOT elderly (not like my dad, at least), took a long time to come around to a different point of view. She has her own blog now, but she looks at it in a totally different way from me. Maybe she'll do a post about this, because I don't want to speak for her. Anyways, my dad, old fart that he is, asked me the inevitable question of why anyone would want people to know all that stuff. This was mostly in response to my urging him to get his own Facebook account. Because, Dad. Because I haven't seen you in years. Because I miss you. Because the internet makes you not so far away. And it's not people, that random, faceless crowd we're convinced is dying to watch us and know our every move. It's me. It's your family.

Personally, I have no idea how I lived without my blog, my friends' blogs, and the internet. Maybe that's a bad thing, like I'm handicapped without it. But that's the way it is.

Nothing yet.

Useless cats! They're fired, both of them! I'm sure they haven't killed it yet just because it's too much fun to chase it and play with it. Don't they know that Cats Catch Mice and EAT Them? Apparently not.

In other news, I've ridden my bike twice in one week! That's a record for 2008! And I plan on riding it AGAIN on Friday. I can't go very far yet, as I have lost much toughness, especially in the boo-tay area, but mentally I am very much in biking shape. It's kind of weird to have my brain in the game without having my legs in shape. I've been enjoying it, though, even the hills. Amazing how the road just takes me right up even the steepest slope. I just have to keep pedalling.

Oh, and THIS is exciting. Our caseworker finally called us and scheduled our first home study visit! A week from Saturday, which is, rather fittingly, our anniversary. It's just the first visit, a short going-over of the home study process, but I am beyond excited! And the county called today to say they've sent out letters to our references. You will know who you are when you get a letter, I guess. Things are moving along. We went out the other night and bought a gate, cabinet locks, outlet covers, etc to get the house baby-proof. It felt weird to be standing in line with all this kid stuff in our cart.