There's Always Money In The Banana Stand

"This is the story of a dedicated fan base, who after years of anticipation, was justly rewarded with 15 new episodes on Netflix."

I couldn't resist making some chocolate covered bananas for the occasion.

 I made a bunch of different kinds, but my favorite are the ones with peanut butter between two pieces of banana. 

  

For those watching today, enjoy!! 

Giant Leap into 2010

Up until about a week ago, this was our television. Seriously.

It was a hand me down that we got when we lived in our apartment 9 years ago. (The TV itself is obviously from the 80's.) We told ourselves it was free so we would just use it a couple years and then get a new one. Well, as time went by we kept saying that we could not justify spending the money when we had a working television. We decided to just use it until it died. It survived three moves and many years. It kept going strong. One time a cable guy came and laughed out loud when he saw it.

As Black Friday approached this year it was all over the news that some of the biggest sales would be on televisions. We knew it's only a matter of time until our TV would just finally give up so we thought this might be a good time to make the switch.

In the left of the picture, in front of the fireplace, you can see the new TV stand we bought and put together last weekend. I don't have a final picture because today we are in the process of moving everything around to make room for the Christmas tree.

But, we have officially made a giant leap into 2010 and have a new TV.

Who knew it would be so complicated? Apparently our old TiVo didn't work with it because our TV was HD and our TiVo was not. Then a cable guy had to come put a cable card in. Then they mailed us a tuner we had to hook up. We also needed a TV stand because we obviously never had one before. It ended up being a way bigger deal than I thought. But, wow. It looks amazing.

Adam refuses to get a cell phone and still uses pay phones if he's out and needs to use a phone, but one step at a time.

I Think I Watch Too Many Crime Dramas

Last night, I went into a small shop to get a couple things for Adam's Christmas stocking and when I came out, the car parked next to mine had it's driver's side door open. I was thinking the person was just returning their cart. I looked around and didn't see anyone coming back. I got in my car and started to leave. Then I began thinking more and more about how the person still wasn't back to their car and it was weird. So I sat there and waited, then walked around and looked more. Then decided I had to call 911. People don't just accidentally leave their car door wide open in a crowded parking lot. They lock their car and set their car alarm. Especially in a nice car like that one.

I called the police and gave all the information about where I was, what kind of car it was, their license plate number, etc. They asked me to stay there and keep an eye out for the police so I can show them where the car is. I agreed to do it. Especially since the door was open and I didn't want someone to come and steal things from the car. And I didn't want to close the door in case there was evidence. (Yes, in my head, I was in the middle of a CSI case.)

So, I stood outside in freezing rain while the police took forever to come. When the officer came, he said he would take care of it. That's it? I was supposed to just leave and never know what happened? He began looking inside the car through the windows with his flashlight as I drove away.

(By the way, I didn't expect them to throw a parade in my honor or give me a key to the city, but a thank you for standing in the freezing rain for a half hour would have be nice. )

Now I admit I watch too many crime drama TV shows and that I was imagining it was a woman and as she got out of the car, someone came up from behind her and kidnapped her. Of course it is much more likely the car was broken into and they left it open. But, why only that car? The parking lot was packed full of cars. Why not mine? Mine was unlocked because I was only running into a small shop for a couple minutes. Which brought up another question, how did this all happen within the time I was in the shop? So many questions that I keep wondering about...

One thing I do know is that I had a small cold that was almost completely gone yesterday and today I am much worse. I was up blowing my nose all night and my ears have been hurting ever since standing out there. So, I hope it wasn't all for some person that somehow forgot to close their own car door!

Professional Worrier

I am a professional worrier. I don't even want to think about the amount of my life that has been spent worrying about things that turn out to be nothing to worry about. If I have anxiety about something, the only thing that seems to work for me is to think it to death. To think every single thought that can possibly be thought about it and then I can let it go. I wish I didn't have to do that, but I do.

This has made the adoption process very difficult for me. I think it is something that is anxiety inducing for the average person. I am hoping this blog will help me in my "thinking it to death" process.

We are currently renewing our homestudy, which expired July 26. We began renewing in early June and it has been one strange obstacle after another.

I don't think it's all the adoption paperwork that really drives us all crazy. We complain about the piles and piles of information you need to give, but I don't think that's really it. It's the little things that happen along the way that keep it from moving forward smoothly. Like when you have to get your finger prints done again because it came back that one finger was too smudged. Or when something you mail to the agency doesn't get forwarded to the right person. Or you buy defective envelopes that don't stay glued closed so your envelopes arrive at the agency with nothing in them. (Yes, that really happened.)

Right now there is one form standing in the way of our homestudy being renewed. Everything else is complete. We have even had our social worker back out to our house. We are just waiting for Adam's doctor to fax his completed physical to the agency. Should be easy, right? Well, then why has this been going on for a month now? I won't go into detail right now, but it has been a number of things from appointment scheduling mix ups to paperwork being filled out wrong. I assumed it was all done since they said they would fax it last week. I should know better than to ever assume. When I found out the adoption agency never received it, I called the doctor and the person on the phone said she can't find the form. She said she needs to wait for the doctor to come in tomorrow to search his office. Adam clearly should have taken the completed form with him after his appointment and put it in the mail, but I told him to have them fax it instead. It would be quicker that way.

I am just so tired of nothing ever happening the easy way. Nothing ever goes smoothly. I have to check on every single piece of paper. I can never assume anything has been faxed or arrived safely. I have been waiting since June to finish this renewal. That's a lot of worrying for a person like me.

There, now that I have vented, I feel better and it's time to enjoy my night with my husband. And he is one lucky man because I already did my venting on here. :)

I am so excited to watch House, How I met Your Mother, and Big Bang Theory!!!