2 answers, strike out text, dead-head, adoption update, college major, bridezillas, background, prize, and first day of school.

A few fellow bloggers have recently done randomness blog posts in which they chat through any and every random thing they have floating through their brain. Today I feel like getting my randomness out. Here we go:

I haven't told you yet that I found 2 answers to my previously posted questions:

1) My step-dad told me that the reason they put flags on top of cranes at construction sites is so that they can see the way that the wind is blowing. That way the crane operator can account for the wind when moving the crane around so he doesn't bust something up. Not sure of the significance of why the flags are always American flags, but maybe they just want to show their USA spirit.
2) The kitchen bouquet browning and seasoning sauce is in the aisle with the gravy packets (next to the potatoes) at Hy-Vee.

My mom told me how to cross out words in my posts. Just adds in a little more pizazz! I like it love it! Don't you love the people in your life who are technologically alert and updated. Jake and I know nothing about technology and we usually don't modernize ourselves with updated gadgets until someone else shows us how. We still use printed off yahoo maps for driving directions, I still listen to the radio via my armband walkman when I run, and I still don't know how to work my ipod which I received as a gift 3 years ago. If I gave myself more time I could think of many more examples.

Have you ever heard of the gardening term 'dead-head'? I didn't know what this term meant until both my mom and Jake's mom said it - and they even said it within the same week's time. Dead-head means to pluck the dead flower blooms off the stem so that the new ones can grow. You need to especially do this with marigolds otherwise the new ones won't grow in when the other ones sluff off. In my 27 years of life I had never heard this term before this summer.

We received an adoption update yesterday from our social worker (we last left off thinking Pastor Gideon would be heading to an orphange last Saturday to enlist children and find out if the youngest child there was a boy). Here is the update:

I spoke w/Pastor Gideon earlier and he indicated he was unable to make it to the town for the update. He is going to work very hard over the next couple days to locate a number to contact 'the house' I assume this is the orphanage or director's home..I couldn't quite understand over the phone. He said he very much hopes the child is a boy so you will continue to put your faith in him to do God's work--it was very sweet. However, it doesn't justify the massive delays. as I mentioned he is taking the program over and I am trying my best to help make this happen. It's funny the only two things he desperately needs is a laptop to communicate with me and a motorcycle to get to the small towns/villages and help the orphans. (He doesn't have a car).

After I got done giggling about picturing a pastor in his traditional robe on a motorcyle, bible in tow, I came to the realization that it is going to take nothing short of a miracle for us to complete this adoption. There are so many barriers right now...it just seems like there is no end in sight. But, I am not giving up. Anyone have a spare laptop or motorcycle they could part with?

With all this event planning that Jake and I have been helping with this summer I started wishing that I would have majored in something else in college. I graduated with an exercise sport science degree - and don't get me wrong it is a great degree - but I wish I would have majored in graphic design. I don't know how to draw, or how to sketch or anything like that, but I would have liked to have learned how to create formal invitations, event programs, etc. I am sure with the right software I could have figured it out, and it would SO come in handy. I can't imagine all that I could have learned if I would have studied it for 4 years! I did figure out how to make address labels one day. That is about as far as I have come.

Another job I would love to have is to be one of the attendants at bridal boutiques that help brides-to-be find THE dress. I realized this the other day when I went with my friend to look at bridesmaid dresses. Yes, I could handle the bride-zillas, yes I could find the perfect veil for that dress, and the perfect earrings for that one, and oh, check out this hair clip with these earrings. Yes, yes, yes.

By the way, is the text in my posts too hard to read on this black background? I've been wondering that since I switched it.

Still reading? Oh good, you get a prize. The prize is a little humorous story to keep you chuckling today: The other day I mentioned to JJ what a good eater he had been lately. I said, "Pretty soon if you keep eating like that you are going to grow big and tall like Daddy." JJ nodded and said quite seriously, "Yep pretty soon I'll be big like Daddy. And pretty soon I'll turn black like Yaw." He said it so sincerely and so seriously that I knew without a doubt he really thought this would happen at some point. I said, "Oh, you actually have to be born that way...you don't just change colors." He said, "Oh." And went on munching his crackers.

And for the last random bit of information, today was Nana Yaw's first day of school in the United States! He and Jake were out the door at 7:10am.

Today was one of those days that I wish I knew how to quickly put the date & time on my camera for this picture. I don't know how to do it right off hand, so I would have had to take a look at the manual, and by then these two would not have waited any longer for their first day of school picture. Oh well.


Signing off from left field,


-Janel-