The Great Camping Experiment

Last weekend we invested in some camping basics. A tent, an air mattress, a lantern and a fan. Our intention yesterday was to spend the night under the stars since it was a pretty mild day temperature wise. Well first, we decided to do a 3 mile run since the Firecracker 5K is coming up. That went pretty well. Then my task was to cook dinner while Hunter baited his crab pots. By that time it was 8 o'clock. He started putting up the tent as I grilled and got dinner ready. It took about an hour to get the thing up. We decided to break for dinner at 9pm. We still hadn't inflated the air mattress, and there was no way I was sleeping on that hard ground. Needless to say, we both fell asleep indoors after dinner. So we inflated the mattress this morning with the plan to sleep in the tent tonight. To be continued...

Loving Summertime

Summer is progressing quickly as usual. The annual 4th of July extravaganza weekend will be here in less than 2 weeks. Looks like we're going to do the 5K race again this year. We haven't been training as much as last year. But we did 2 miles tonight with positive results.


Oh and we have decided to try camping. We bought a tent and air mattress this weekend. We are going to try it out one of the next few weekends. We have our eye out for a Virginia Beach weekend. Hunter has never done any camping. We used to go once or twice a year when I was growing up and I also did a couple of years at the local Girl Scout Camp. I was telling Hunter stories about camping this weekend. I got laughing because they all seem to end with me saying, "And I was so miserable, I slept in the car"!! What am I thinking??

Progress?

I finally touched base with our new social worker. I emailed her to say hello and check if there were any updates. I had decided to do this once a month and asked her if that was ok. Her response was very encouraging and warm. She said to email or call anytime and that once a month was more than reasonable. She said they were still a bit slow. They had one baby in care who would be returned to his mother this week. She also said they had contact with a few pregnant women, but none of them were due any time soon. Sounds a bit better than the last update. She seems very nice, and that put my mind at ease a bit.

Still keeping busy. We are running a 5K on my birthday this month. It is also the time of year for oyster roasts-always a good time. And New Orleans is right around the corner. I got laughing at myself today. I'm trying to figure out how best to spend our free time there. I keep saying, "Well we gotta eat here. And don't forget about the food at such-n-such". There's a saying in New Orleans.

"Most places people eat to live, in New Orleans, people live to eat."

It's so true and I can't wait.

2 Dozen Deviled Eggs Later...

Another big weekend is over. And we did it! We were able to complete the 5K in about 43 minutes. Not in the front of the pack, but not last either. Learned a few lessons, like don't eat a power bar and drink water just before racing. Result is upset stomach. Had to walk a lot of the last mile, but finished the race running. Very happy with results despite not feeling so good. Now we're looking for a 10K to compete in this fall.

The rest of the weekend was a blast as usual. Hunter's parents and aunt and uncle joined us for the parade and the fireworks cruise. My brother, sister-in-law and their kids came down to visit. The kids enjoyed playing in the sprinkler with their cousin at my aunt's house which happens to be on the parade route. They were super excited about the parade. My neice is 3 and didn't quite grasp the concept of people throwing candy off the floats. She stood holding her bag open as the floats went by as though they would just throw the candy straight into her bag! She didn't realize she had to run and pick it off the ground. Then she started yelling to them to throw more candy. Too funny.

On Sunday we went to Aunt Jo's and for Show and Tell we decided to announce our decision to adopt and tell everybody what progress we had made so far. As Hunter put it, "This year we'll tell and next year, hopefully, we'll show". We had many family members approach us afterwards offering congratulations and asking questions. Everyone was so positive and encouraging. Some shared their own experiences with adoption. I even found out one of my cousins had been in the middle of applying for a Korean adoption when she found out she was pregnant 17 years ago. I had no idea. Some time ago, our social worker asked us how our immediate family felt about our decision to adopt. I told her that they wished we would hurry up already. It's nice to know we have even more support from our extended family, too.

So, another holiday weekend has ended. Now it's time to enjoy the rest of the summer. We finally have cucumbers and squash and sweet corn from the garden. The Fireman's Carnival will be opening at the end of the month. Next thing we know it'll be vacation time. Can't wait.