I just spoke with my Mom and found out that the Indian government has approved my parent's adoption of little Varsha (soon-to-be Rachel). Wooohhooooo!

Normally when I get one of those "get to know you" emails where you are supposed to fill in the blanks on a number of questions I just ditch them because I don't have time (or I'm lazy) but not today. Today my meeting was cancelled because of STORM WATCH 2008 and the boy is playing joyfully on the floor so here goes, this is for you Jessi.

8 TV Shows I Watch:
1) House
2) The Office
3) 30 Rock
4) Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (He's so crabby and probably an alcoholic but I still love watching him travel to far off places and eat and drink with the locals.)
5) Psych!
6) Iron Chef America
7) Top Chef
8) Ace of Cakes

8 Favorite Restaurants: I'm also adding what I get at these restaurants because I love food.
1) JAK's (steak medium rare, 1/2 potato cakes 1/2 mashed potato side, salad with blue cheese dressing and a nice big glass of red wine-but not merlot, I hate merlot.)
2) Nordstrom Cafe (Pear and blue cheese salad with champagne vinaigrette.....I dream about you.)
3) The Oceanaire Seafood Room (shrimp, crab and brie cheese stuffed sole)
4) Peninsula Creamery in Palo Alto (Rocky road and peppermint ice cream milkshake, grilled cheese sandwich and fries...lots of ketchup)
5) Tacos Guaymos (2 tacos al pastor and 1 veggie taco and a corona with a lime please)
6) Thaiger Room (Basil chicken, one star)
7) Bing's (Whole wheat french toast-breakfast, Turkey burger with caramelized onions and cole slaw-lunch and cream of tomato basil soup if they've got any)
8) Whole Foods (grilled rustica sandwich with caramelized onions added)


8 Things that Happened to Me Today:(today hasn't been that interesting so far, sorry)
1) Drove all the way to Mercer Island for a meeting that had been cancelled.
2) Didn't check my voicemail before leaving the house. If I had I would have known that the meeting was cancelled, doh!
3) Snuggled with my husband at 5:45am after putting the baby back to bed.
4) Got a call from my mom and watched James' face light up when she talked to him.
5) Got hungry writing the list above.
6) Had to actually wake James up at 8:00am to get in the car to go to the meeting that didn't happen.
7) Used the last bit of my peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee and actually felt a little panicked because I might not be able to get to the store today or the rest of the week.
8) Read Jessi's blog, was challenged to write this list and decided to do it.


8 Things I Look Forward To:
1) Telling people about Jesus!
2) This Christmas because Ryan will be home for almost a whole week!
3) Snow on Christmas morning in Wenatchee.
4) Spending time this Christmas with the Singletary family....especially Meghann who we rarely get to see.
5) Watching our children grow in faith and ultimately give their lives to Jesus. (I say children because I hope there will be more....nope not pregnant folks.)
6) Growing old with Ryan.
7) Living in heaven without satan, sin and death.
8) Seeing Jesus face.


8 Things I Wish For:
1) That everyone I know would give their lives to Jesus, ask for forgiveness of their sins and be reconciled to the Father....and then come talk to me about it!
2) That Ryan and I would always be faithful to the Lord.
3) For my parents to be able to go to India and pick up their daughter soon.
4) To not be afraid of the ocean...yep I'm afraid of the ocean.
5) To know what I'm gifted at.
6) To have more time to read.
7) For it to snow like crazy tonight so Ryan has to work from home tomorrow.
8) A Dyson vacuum cleaner.

Now I challenge all of you who have blogs to do this too (Mary, Nathan, Emily, Megan!!!!!!).

....so I can buy it!

Recently I went to Value Village (Goodwill equivalent) on the lookout for cold weather baby clothes when I discovered a treasure trove of other fine goods. Furniture, toys, sunglasses (Which I needed since I just broke mine and I go into convulsions in the car if I don't have sunglasses on even the mildest of sunny days.), clothes, dishes...pretty much anything you can think of.

I walked away having spent about $6 and I got a fun toy for James and a new pair of sunglasses for me, woohoo! I didn't get any baby clothes but only because Mr. Man was starting to have a meltdown and I decided it would be best not to torture the little guy.

Moral of the story, I think I will be going back for more second hand goods in the future.

It's now December 11th and our house doesn't have one Christmas decoration. No not one.

I was thinking about this today and suddenly my heart began to hurt, mostly for James. I am good at a lot of things but one of them is not spending money on anything that we don't "need", and Christmas decorations have unfortunately fallen into this category. I joke with Ryan that I was brought up in the depression era because I am so tight with my spending, which is generally good, but at times like this I see the darker side of this trait.

When I was growing up my Mom always made the house feel homey and full of Christmas, no matter our financial situation. Today my sweet sister is so much like Mom so her house feels warm and cozy. When I look around our home however, it feels a bit cold and empty.

So I feel like I need a little Christmas and I need it now! I want my kids to grow up like I did, in a home full of Christmas and love. With this said I have a challenge for any of you who might be reading this. Let me know of any traditions or ways that you decorate to make the season feel like Christmas to you and your family. Every year I bake cookies for the neighbors, which is something that our kids will one day do with me, but I need some ideas for the home. Please help!

We have been getting a lot of calls from telemarketers lately and they have been driving me nuts! I don't really love talking on the phone to begin with so the idea of talking on the phone with a complete stranger and being sold something really doesn't appeal. I've added our number to the do not call list and I've told telemarketers to take us off their list but somehow they always get through.

In recent months I have employed a number of tactics when answering these calls including hanging up, putting them on mute and not hanging up, saying "no thank you" and hanging up and my personal favorite and one I learned from Ryan's grandma, putting the phone on the counter and walking away until they hang up.

Well now I have a new tactic I learned from my mom that makes me feel a little silly but I think is a lot nicer and loving than all of the above. From here on out when I answer a call and I know it is a telemarketer I am going to be super nice to Sally, or Ted or whoever I am talking to and I tell them this:

"Your know what, I am really not interested in your Ginsu Knives (or whatever they are selling) but I want to tell you that Jesus loves you and he died for you."

I figure either they'll want to know more and I can talk to them about Jesus, my absolute favorite subject, or they'll think I am a loon and hang up. Both outcomes would be awesome.

So if you love Jesus and you want to spread the Gospel you should give it a try.

If you don't have time to wash your hair in the morning but you know you'll be a grease ball by afternoon if you don't them turn your head upside down, sprinkle baby powder in your hair and work it in with your fingers. Not quite as good as a shower but it keeps you a little less greasy for a day.

I just read this on a blog that my Mom sent me and I thought it pretty much summed me up:

"I'm a work in progress, utterly reliant upon God. I'm easy-going, until I freak out. Organized, until I lose something. Laid back, until someone hurts the ones I love."

Here's a link to the blog if you're interested. From the small bit that I have read the woman who writes it appears to be a Christian lady who has 12 kids (four biological, eight adopted, and all beautiful).

I was reading this morning in Proverbs and this verse stuck out:

Proverbs 13:20

"Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise,
but the companions of fools will suffer harm."

Who do you spend time with? Are you walking with the wise or becoming a fool?