Saying Goodbye to Arizona

We had a nice trip over Thanksgiving. We went to Phoenix to visit Jenetta's Dad and his family there. A nice plus on this trip was that we were able to spend time re-connecting with friends from Peoria H.S. Some of these people I hadn't seen for ten-fifteen years or more. We had a really great time and we hope very much to be able to rekindle these friendships.

I should have taken photographs of all of them to show you, but I was so much into the visiting, I just didn't think about about it. Hopefully we will see them all again soon.

One fun highlight - Jenetta's dad bought tickets to this show in Scottsdale. It was basically an improved comedy show centered around a nun and her class of students. Thanks to some pointing of fingers, Pat and I got volunteered to go on stage for the nativity. I was one of the wise men, and he was Joseph. Everyone had a good laugh at our expense :)

So now we head back home to reality and work and dealing with the water pipe leak under our guest bathroom... It was very nice to have a break from all that!

I did it!!!

I completed my first 10 mile race this morning. I had never run this far before. Seriously - the farthest I've ever run was 7 miles. I was worried I wouldn't even be able to compete because I twisted my ankle two weeks ago and it is still very sore. But it held up. I experienced some intense pain around mile 7, but I was able to get through it.

The weather was perfect. The sun came out for the start and it was sunny for the first two miles. Then it was overcast until the finish. For those of you that know the area, it started at the Peoria sports complex. We ran south down 83rd Ave and ran along Skunk Creek to just past 59th Ave. Then we doubled back and finished on the other side of the ballfield. There were more hills than I anticipated because of the path that runs along that floodplain. It goes up and down the riverbanks several times.

Basically, my goal was to just finish without stopping to walk. I was able to do that and even pick up the pace a bit for the last mile. I met some nice people before and after the race. I'm glad I did it. It was a lot of fun. Now I plan to eat. A lot...

An appropriate number for me in Peoria, I think...

It was at the sports complex. The Padres do their spring training here. It's a great place to host a race. It has plenty of restrooms and places to spread out.

Me after running 10 miles. Still smiling!

Friendsgiving

We had a friend-filled fun weekend! On Saturday, we went to Old Poway Park to attend a wedding reception for Andrew and Amy. It was a beautiful afternoon and it was great to hang out with everyone.

Then that evening, we attended "Friends-giving" - an early Thanksgiving meal hosted by Nikki and Robbie. They put so much work into making it the real thing! I think we are discovering as a group that the all-or-nothing attitude doesn't work. We are just scheduling things and whoever can attend is who will be there. It will be great time with whoever can make it. So, about half our home group got together for a great feast. I probably should have taken out my camera phone earlier in the evening when the table was decorated and both Abby and Isaiah were playing together. But, here is a short video of us hanging out and talking after the meal. (Abby was in bed by this point). The video isn't really all that interesting (probably more interesting to David & Courtney), but it lets you know who was there.

Plus, David's look at 1:05 is priceless. I think he is going to beat me up. :) Scary, man!

On Sunday, we hosted a get-together at our place to watch the Chargers lose again. It was a lot of fun to hang out together with Robbie, David, Courtney and Isaiah, Jason and Latisha, Jason's friend, Geoff, and Blake. The game was exciting until the very end. Then it was just sad.

Sometimes we get bummed out because of the apparent failure of our business and the never-ending wait for adoption. One thing we can always be thankful for and so happy with is how blessed we are to have so many close friends. These are people who we know we could call with any concern and know without a doubt that they would respond with love and compassion. That's pretty cool.

How I feel at work

I feel like this a lot of time at work...

TV Photos

Here are two photos of the TV and the new entertainment center. Jenetta found a used dining buffet on craigslist that we modified to work as a entertainment cabinet. It is a bit taller than we would like, but it works nicely and it goes with our other stuff well.

I got the HDMI cable today so I hooked up the Blu-Ray player. WOW!

We ordered Wall-E on Blu-Ray, and I've heard that animated shows look incredible on Blu-Ray. I will take photos in the light this weekend so you can see the buffet more clearly.

So, now we need to clean up our old entertainment center, TV, and DVD player to sell on craigslist.

New TV

I have been saving rewards points on my Sony Visa card for about 4 and a half years now. Most of the construction costs on our addition that could be put on a credit card were purchased that way. Because of my employee discount and a major holiday sale for employees, I was able to get a really great TV for free! Actually, the price was so good, I got my Christmas present for myself early - a blu-ray player. I had enough points to get the blu-ray player free as well!

It's been weird to think about and wait for something like this for this long. Jenetta and I were thinking that I waited longer to get the TV than our dating/engagement time. That is strange. I guess I could have bought it long ago, but I really wanted it for free. So now I got it. It was worth the wait. I was able to get the highest quality set that Sony currently makes. It is a 40" XBR7. They make an XBR8 which is slightly better with LED backlighting, but that's only in 46" and 55". We decided on a 40" model long ago when we designed our speaker placement in the wall. So, because of the sale discount, we were able to finally cash in my points.

I got to watch the Chargers lose in HD yesterday. The picture was great, but the game was sure a bummer. It's hard to watch that much incompetence over and over and over again.

Here is a photo. It is currently sitting on the fireplace hearth. We will get an entertainment unit for it sometime. Jenetta is looking for used ones online. One thing I really love about it is how it handles reflection. Our old TV has really bad glare in the afternoon from the windows. This TV is so bright that there is glare noticeable on the frame, but the image isn't affected at all.

It's that season again...

Good times at Kit Carson...

Adoption Support Group

We attended a support group last night for people who are waiting to adopt. Waiting sucks! We feel like we must have been passed over by the county many times by now, and it makes us wonder if something is wrong with us!

Seriously, the worst part about the waiting is just the uncertainty with the progress and our status. There is not very clear communication unless they have a placement for you. I think that sponsoring this support group was their way to address that somewhat.

I went to the meeting with a very cynical mindset. How many other "desperate" families would be represented? I have been feeling lately like this will never happen for us. But to be honest, these attitudes quickly faded away. There were people there that had been waiting as long as us as well as people who have only been waiting a few days. The social workers there did a good job of fielding our questions. It was a good thing to be able to share our concerns and our stories with other people who have experienced the same things. We left feeling encouraged and hopeful. It is good to not feel alone.

On another positive note, we deposited some checks yesterday. Some of the money was anticipated, but some was not. November thru February is usually our toughest time financially. We have paid the bills up to Dec. 1 so far. This doesn't mean that we can go buy a bunch of stuff now - just that we have exactly what we need. That is really encouraging!

Morning Hike

Jeremy and I went hiking today at Torrey Pines. We walked along the beach and then went up the stairs through the bluffs. There was an art festival there today. It was cool to see all the people painting the natural beauty. Jeremy and I had a lot of time to talk. We haven't had time like that for a long time, so that was very nice.

Free Chipotle

I had a weird Halloween. At work there were a number of people who really dressed up. There was even a contest for costumes. One group of people dressed up as the Sony...HD is in our DNA slogan and logo. There were a lot of really creative costumes. They settled the costume contest by audience applause measured with an actual decibel meter. The winner had 104.3 decibels of applause. (That shows you how geeky is the place where I work!)

I didn't do much. I dressed like my co-worker, Tom. He wears a pocket T-shirt, jeans and flip-flops almost every day. So I did the same. It's weird wearing a "costume" that only one other person understands. Well, he thought it was funny, and my boss got it too, but there is such a language barrier between us that I'm not sure if he really got it or was just laughing to be polite :)

So, after work, I went running and then we went for our free Chipotle. We went all out on our burrito costumes: