Hard to Focus

I have had trouble, in general, since the forum we attended on Western Africa, coming to grips with all that is going on there. Over the last couple of days, a report that finally reached the western world came out of a massacre of over 300 people by a militant group including a 3 year old that was burned to death and men who were tied up and macheted to death. I can't even wrap my head around how someone reaches a point at which human life, the lives of our son's, daughters, sisters, brothers, have no value anymore. I could never figure out during WW2 why so many people just sat by and let the Hi**ler murder so many hundreds of thousands of people. When I was younger, I would always say, why didn't someone do something about that sooner? And then I think back, there wasn't the technology back then that there is now, word traveled very slow. But we sit here today, three months after the massacre (there's technology for ya), and now I wonder if our children will ask us when they grow up why we didn't do anything when hundreds of thousands of women were being raped and thousands of people were being killed.

Its done (well almost)

The Basement remodel is complete. There is a small punch list. Like bringing in the cable line for the TV and the cable modem. Putting the shelves in the bookcase. Installing the wrap around the support post. I still have to build the Faux windows, but that's garage work and doesn't impact move it.

Tomorrow. Or, actually today as I see its Sunday already. We'll give a good cleaning to everything, then start the move it.
Soon I'll tally up all the receipts I've been carrying to see what the total $$ cost was. We still have one medium expense for carpeting on the stairs. Coming soon a picture following the move it. And hopefully some type of photo montage that shows all the changes and progress. So pre-move it photo is below.


Peace and Happy Holy Week.

Free at last..

Free at last. Free at least. Thank Goodness we are free at last from the state portion of our adoption journey in Springfield. Our homestudy and accompanying documents were sent to US CIS (Immigration) for our VISA approval. Possibly a month. We'll pray for last. Then we'll just wait for our Embassy appointment. We're in homestretch we believe.

Hang in there K.. we're coming soon....

Reading and Running and Trim..

Basement is about 90% down. Got just a little trim left around the basement windows. I need to create the faux window panels, and lastly cut some shelves for the new bookcase/game shelving. Then it will be move in time.

Feeling a bit bored about the music in the car, I opted to try something new. Reading. Except that I read slow, I opted to go for an ebook. So I listen to, and just completed today, the book "Heart of Darkness" by Conrad. Quite good. I've now started into Fellowship of the rings, by Tolkien. 16 disks that one is. yikes that will be awhile.

Lastly I've been running semi regularly on the treadmill at the office. Anxious (but slacking) about getting outside. During one of the runs, I experienced something. While I hate running on the treadmill, it was a really great/fun run. Almost joyful. Kinda like what I lost once I started training all the time for things. So I started thinking. Maybe I wont commit to much this year. A marathon would be nice. but the rest. EH.. maybe not. I already missed some registrations as it is. so maybe I'll just run for running sake. get back to the fun or joy of it.. We'll see.but for the time being it sounds interesting to me..

peace

Daily Reflections (for the day)

Most days, if I am all together "with it", I'll read the Daily Readings online. I would then follow that up with reading some reflections upon those readings. Within these reflections, there is usually a prayer for the day to tie the reflections and the readings together.

Today, this Prayer, just seemed particularly relevant given the position J & I are in, with regards to the adoption of K. This prayer reflection is based upon Romans 8:28.

"Father, I believe that You will make all the aspects of my life work together for the good, even those not caused by You"

As J & I wait and wait and wait.. and struggle to find reason or justification or something positive in all this waiting, a small reminder that everything is a part of a plan, one that we may never understand, helps to keep us grounded spiritually.

Hope you have a great day (Hey St. Patricks Day I guess)
Peace

Shutdown and Reboot

I have written and re-written several posts in the last few weeks and can't seem t quite get it right. Part of me is fearing retribution if someone knows someone knows someone reads my post and we end up more sunk than we already are. To make a long story short, we have hit a snafu with our adoption of K. While we do now know what exactly precitipated where we are at today, we are in a situation that requires several additional documents about K which are difficult to come by doesn't have band-aids or aspirin, hence it is difficult to have an official dr's report on her, with the exception of the embassy doc who only does medical reports for visas, not regualar dr. visits. While I am hopeful that once we get the 4 required documents, I am fearful that that will only be the beginning.

I am sad, overwhelmed and broken. I have shutdown and am going through the motions of life..... waiting to reboot and praying for some good news next week to wipe my mind of the mess this week has been.

Embrace Life

What a stunning video (I caught the link from a CNN link my brother sent me)
http://embracethis.co.uk/

And the light goes on...

Basement remodel update:
I've been focusing on work this week. But feeling the urge to do a "little" something, I opted to look at the "accent" lighting that will be near the basement windows, behind what I'm calling faux windows that I have to build. To my surprise, the went quite quick. While they are not screwed down (since I still need to trim out the inside of that rough window framing) I did test them on the dimmer switch that controls them.

WOW! I turned off all the other lights in the basement. Being night time, that left the basement quite dark. I turned on the accent lighting (which includes a new spotlight pointing above the fireplace). SO COOL. even with the light dimmed down. It was just so cool. if I listened hard I could almost hear the Medieval revelry within some Inn.

Splash one more item on the basement punch list...

Peace

A taste of Soul..

slurp.. slurp..
(the sound of Ted licking the last remnants off his fingers)

For those not in the know, February is Black History Month. At work today, there was an event. "A taste of soul". Its was a smorgasbord of "soul food". I've heard people talk of soul before, and its definition seems difficult to nail down. I'm not going to attempt to do that her. But as I finish off this giant plate filled with food. I'm thinking. I like "soul food". Especially the spicier dishes.

What did I have. Some rice prepared in different ways. Some great corn bread stuffing. Regular corn bread muffin. some pulled pork. turkey prepared I dunno how, except to say YUM!. Some spicy sausage. Some awesome potato salad. Fried fish. Fried chicken. Another kinda of BBQ pork. Black eyed peas. spaghetti (not sure how that's soul food). My plate was full. So I skipped over some candied yams, some different varieties of greens.

In all, very good. But I must say that spicy sausage I had. Doing my best Homer Simpson.. Aaaaahhhhhhh (as I wipe the drool from the corner of my mouth).

All I can say is its good I ate just after a wicked hard cardio/strength class at the fitness center, as I probably ate a 1-1/2 worth of calories...

Peace

A biscuit for your basket

With the laminate flooring carefully pulled up. It was time to get to Menards this time, rented the Menards truck since I cant bring home 4x8 sheet goods. 12 3/4 tongue and groove OSB in fact. A couple of very long night getting it cut up and installed. A short break for a baptism in North Central Wisconsin. And it was time to get the floor done.

The fun part about installing the OSB? was jointing the short edges of the wood. There is no tongue and groove. After some research, and some phones calls. The answer was "biscuits". Not having the ability to use biscuits, I ended up with a cost conscience biscuit jointer from the Depot. It was quite, clean, and did the job like a champ. Heck even my mom was excited about it, no sure why she's always wanted to have or use a biscuit jointer.. but there you have it..

With the OSB down, and the laminate already cut, it didn't take long to get the laminate by down. A couple hours tops. The floor looks awesome. And now it feels awesome as well. Its still got a tad of give, that's good. but it doesn't fell like walking on cardboard over shag carpeting.



There were some tricky areas to cut around, but the I-Beam support post was one of the most tricky. Especially given the nature of the flooring with the tile and the grout lines. In order to keep the pattern going, it proved to be quite a challenge. I couldn't be happier how well that turned out. It's blog worthy by itself.

So the flooring is done. The chair rail, baseboard, window and door casing will begin sometime very soon. I've got to snap up the rest of the ceiling after I install some speakers, and do some accent lighting in the windows. Those are the biggest punch list items. So we're almost there.

Peace!