Music

I'm all about winning. I'm up for a good competition any day. Well, today I win.

Jimmy has always avoided anything but tinkering and playing around with his guitar. Tonight, my living room has been turned into a make-shift recording studio.

Ross and Jimmy have spent the last few hours tinkering and playing with recording equipment turned on. Those of you who have been pestering Jimmy for years to do something productive with his music will be able to see the fruits of your labor soon.

We'll post information on how you can download a few Ferguson Originals in the next few days.

Poop.

Clearly, we are going to be perfect parents. We have watched as other people's children – probably yours- have rebelled with earth shattering meltdowns in the most public of places and smugly passed judgment and whispered about how we would have parented so much better in that situation. God, we are awful people.

Today, it began to sink in that our day may actually come. The day when some other bratty know-it-all young couple watches and judges us at our darkest moment because our kid was the one without the swimmy diaper…because we were the parents who thought our kid was potty-trained….because our sweet innocent baby was the one who caused the subtle pointing and not so subtle command, “Clear the pool…POOP!”

How have we gone all these years and never needed to evacuate the pool for poop and now on the precipice of parenthood, someone else’s kid had to let us know that we could potentially even screw up a day at the pool for hundreds of other people? I guess we should be grateful; after all, it wasn’t our kid pooping in the pool. It was still one of yours and we could still walk away in the fantasy world where we are perfect parents with kids who never poop in the pool.

Yay!

We just received e-mails assigning our family coordinator and social worker! We have officially started our dossier, which seems to be miles of paperwork, and our home study, which also seems to include quite a bit of paperwork:)

Happy Summer!

Waiting

Hi all!

Well, we are still waiting. We thought this waiting thing would be pretty relaxed; however, it turns out that waiting to be "matched" with your baby is more intense than waiting for Christmas morning - go figure. Within the next week or so, we should meet our family coordinator and find out more about our home study agency and social worker.

We've spent the last few weeks just enjoying summer and trying to distract ourselves from the waiting. Thomas, Jimmy's next youngest brother, was able to visit us for a few days. In an attempt to not be a tourist, he and Jimmy spent most of the time wasting away at various coffee spots. They seem to embrace that Ferguson-style love of spending hours doing nothing but hanging out.

Shirin's Recovery

Jimmy is now back to work teaching summer school and leaving me at home to be the official dog-sitter for Shirin, who had surgery earlier this week. Luckily dog-sitting does not hamper my summer goal of reading the 50-some books on my to-read list. So far, I've read No Biking in the House Without a Helmet by Melissa Fay Greene another delightful insight into the daily life of a family of nine with multiple adopted kiddos. Greene's brutally honest journalistic writing keeps me balanced between idyllic euphoria and total terror. On the non-adoptive front, I haven't been able to tear myself away from The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay, which may be my new all-time favorite book. If you haven't read this, you seriously need to order it right now. Imagine To Kill a Mockingbird mixed with a little Invictus, Catcher in the Rye, and Mohammad Ali.

Finally, as promised, here's the newest "recipe" for our granola. By recipe, I mean this might be similar to the granola I've been making, but I make no promises, because I usually just throw together whatever I happen to find in the kitchen :)

Jimmy's Granola Snack

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Baking Time: 20 minutes
Cooling Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:
4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup candied almond slices
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
1 cup dried cranberries


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line large baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Combine oats, almonds, and dried cranberries in large mixing bowl.
3. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine salt, brown sugar, honey, olive oil, cinnamon and vanilla. Bring to a boil for 3-5 minutes.
4. Pour warm mixture over dry ingredients. Stir well.
5. Spread mixture in baking pan.
6. Bake for about 10 minutes. Stir. Bake for another 10 minutes.
7. Remove from oven. Let cool about 20 minutes. Store in air-tight container.