Finally Done & updates

Thursday was our LAST home-study! I'm SO glad to be done with all the classes (for now) and home-studies. Not that it was such a headache or chore... they did just become part of our schedule, but there is so much more free time now that we aren't doing all of that. Now we are just waiting to be approved (hopefully by beginning of January). After that happens we'll be licensed and ready to have children in our home. We are set up to take in 2 children in regular beds, and 1 infant (crib size child). The "kids' room" is ready to go for the most part... We still need to hang pictures on the walls and clean out a few last remnants of our stuff. I also need to get pillows for the beds. I'm a little apprehensive about all the things we will need once we have a child that we don't have yet, and really can't get before the child comes here, because we don't know what age of child(ren) we'll have. If we have an infant, we'll need an infant car seat, baby spoons, bottles, etc. If we have a school age child we'll need a booster seat (maybe-again, depends on age/weight), toys for their age & interest, etc. It's quite frustrating to me (control freak!!) to just not know anything! Good thing we have lots of family & friends that I'm sure would help us out in that department. And I know I'm going to be visiting wal-mart, once upon a child, and the thrift store once we get kids... which I'm totally okay with. Also maybe freecycle will help me out or craigslist!

Also speaking of finishing up things... yesterday was my last day of my OSU classes. I can't say I'm feeling relieved yet though because our final grades aren't in yet. I'm pretty sure I have an A in the one class and an A- in the other one. Hopefully anyway!

Last night was the baby shower that I threw for 2 Resolve friends. It was a bird theme with green & blue color scheme. The decor was pretty darn CUTE if you ask me. I had bird houses, signs that said "welcome to the nest", wine glasses with birds painted on them as favors, and even cupcakes with toasted coconut on them to look like a nest with candy eggs on top. We played a few games, they opened gifts and we talked (of course) a ton. It was definitely a fun night!

Tonight I went to my first Ugly Christmas Sweater party hosted by one of my co-workers and his wife. It was definitely more fun than I thought it would be & I was there longer than I thought I would be too. I'm not sure, but I think I won best party hat. :) I wore one that looks like a Santa hat, but it stands up, shakes, jingles and sings. Pretty awesome if you ask me! I also like to be around my co-workers in a setting outside of work & getting to see the other side of them... the let loose & have fun side!

12 days until Jeri & I leave for our cruise!! I cannot wait!!

Almost Thanksgiving!

Well the end is drawing nearer (the end of my OSU classes that is!) I am really excited about being finished, now if I can only stop procrastinating long enough to get my assignments all finished... :)

Jeri's homestudy was on Thursday this past week, and he seemed to think it went really well. We, on our 2nd attempt, passed the fire inspection. We did not pass it the first time because we had some electrical boxes in the ceiling that were not covered. I hadn't even noticed them prior to the inspection, so I guess that's what the firemen are for! With Jeri's individual homestudy complete the last part will be my individual homestudy on December 1.

We also (prior to that date) have to get our kid bedrooms ready for kids to live in. Right now our home is set up with our bedroom, office and a guest room on the 1st floor. We'll be moving our office to the basement, and turing it into a "nursery" complete with crib that must be set up at all times. I'm slightly apprehensive about this, but I'm sure it will be okay in the long-run (just a little something to get used to).

I've started to gather items that we will need to have... like a crib sheet for the crib, a diaper holder, the gate/fence thing that goes across the top bunk bed (for the "big" kids' room), which will have been our guest room. Guest's will just have to sleep in the basement in our 2nd family room.

The fun I have been having recently is actually thinking about how to decorate the bedrooms to make them more kid friendly and if we have a "theme" what it is going to be exactly. It's a little weird since I'm not picking something out for a specific kid, so what it comes down to is it has to be something I (& Jeri) like, and hope that the kids we have will like it too.

Here is what I have so far...

Nursery:

1. A super adorable crib blanket that has verses from the Beatles song "Imagine". Some of the verses have to do with peace in the world, and loving everyone (I thought this would be great for our children because they will have a birth family also to love & really we'll love them too-after all they gave us a piece of themselves). The blanket also has mommy/daddy & baby animals on it in a variety of colors, the border of the blanket is a light green.

2. I also have the crib sheet that I spoke of above, it is a light blue that matches some of the animals on the blanket.

3. A diaper holder that currently has a really ugly picture and nothing to hang from (like a spot at the top), so I am going to cover the ugly with blue material, and possibly put a picture on the front (I have stencils of some animals that go along with the blanket).

4. *Maybe* have Noah's Ark themed stuff on the way from a friend, we are going to see pictures before we purchase, though the items sound nice (crib bumper, lamp, quilt all included).

5. A crib.

Big Kid's room:

1. Bunk beds (coming next weekend)

2. Dresser (just need to move it upstairs)

3. Hamper

4. Sheets for the twin beds

5. Some start or at least ideas for decor. I don't think we keep the current stuff we have in there because there are a lot of breakables that I wouldn't want broken!

Our plan is to move everything & get it all ready a week from today! :)