Life is Never Flat

Fun Facts About Ecuador

The size of Ecuador is comparable to the size of Nevada.

Ecuador includes the Galapagos Islands, one  of the world's greatest wildlife treasures - It was here that Darwin made his observations that led to his theory of evolution.

Ecuador has more than 30 active volcanoes - Cotapaxi, just south of Quito is one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.

Official language is Spanish, major religious tradition is Roman Catholic.

Soccer (futbol) is the most popular sport, but Ecuador also has it's own form of volleyball, called Ecuavolley.

The official currency is the US dollar.

The colors of the flag = Yellow for diversity, Blue for the sky and sea, and Red for the blood of those who fought for independence.

Ecuador's independence day is on August 10th.

Due to it's position near the Equator it is known as the closest point on Earth to the Sun.

Ecuador is one of only two countries in South America that do not share a border with Brazil.

Guinea pig is considered to be a delicacy in Ecuador.

Main exports: Petroleum, banana, shrimp, coffee, cocoa, roses, and tuna.

Under Ecuadorian law a woman can be returned to her parents if her husband finds out she is not a virgin on their wedding night.

Ecuador is home to 4,500 species of butterflies, 1,640 species of birds, 345 species of reptiles, 358 species of amphibians, and 258 species of mammals.

Ecuador has won only one Olympic gold medal -- the Men's 20km walk at the 1996 Olympics.

A Thousand Years

It's not true what they say about time. It doesn't make it easier. It doesn't hurt any less.

It is true however, that as time goes on, it's easier to block for a while. But then when it hits you, it hits you just as hard as it did the day it happened.

I've spent the better part of the morning crying on my kitchen floor.

I still can't make any sense of it.

I miss him so much.

I dream about him often.

I daydream about him and his sister playing in the backyard.

I miss him.

I want him home.

Impaciencia

Impatience


It's been nearly three weeks without any updates.

THREE WEEKS!

The last we knew is that our dossier arrived in Ecuador on September 3rd (or 4th maybe). There were three steps to be completed:

1. Dossier to be translated
2. Submission to the government committee/Receive official match letter
3. Apply for I-8000/Receive Article 5 Letter allows us to travel

So far, all we know is that it was being translated ... it really can't take three weeks to translate, right?

You would think that after five years of this I would be a much more patient person.

Not so much.

9/11

On Tuesday, September 11, 2012, Ryan and I flew out of MKE airport to Washington DC. We didn't realize when we booked our tickets that it was 9/11. Actually it was a very uneventful trip, and everything was smooth on the way there. The only thing that happened was a brief moment of silence.

Our trip was very last minute, and we only were able to go for a couple days -- Short, but sweet!

Ryan was asked to speak at a conference being held on Wednesday for non-profit organization collaboration. We had most of the day Tuesday to sight-see, and the afternoon on Wednesday. We flew back home on Thursday.

On Tuesday, my sister-in-law Tracy picked us up from the airport. God Bless her, she had agreed to give us a tour of DC. First we had to swing by and pick up my nephew from Pre-school. He was very confused to see me and Uncle Ryan at his school! After meeting his friends, and checking out his classroom, we hopped back in the car and headed to the Metro station. I am such a nerd, but this was the first time I ever rode a Metro!!

 

Once we got there, we grabbed lunch down in the business district. It was the craziest thing, but the streets were lined with trucks selling all different kinds of foods. First we tried Empanadas (again my first time!). Then Ryan and Silas had to get hot dogs because they were still hungry, and the Empanadas just didn't do it for them. Then we shared a fish taco. After filling up on lunch from the weird truck vendors we headed towards the museums. First stop: Hirshhorn Museum of Art.

 

Giant sculpture of brush strokes.

 

Goofy picture in the water fountain.

 

 

 

Getting ready to go inside!

 

Warhol

 

Waiting for Uncle Ryan and Mom

 

Still

 

 This was a sculpture of a really big man (naked) sitting on the floor. Check out the detail in the feet!!

 

Next, we headed over to the National Museum of Natural History. We purchased tickets to the Live Butterfly Pavilion. We were lucky enough to have them land on us. Silas thought that was the coolest part!

 

 

Swordtail Butterfly

 

He caught the swordtail on a paintbrush!

Uncle Ryan thought it would be fun to go down the stairs, extreme-style!

We continued our journey through The Mall and saw:

The White House

 

WWII Memorial

WWII Memorial

Reflecting Pool

Lincoln Memorial

 

 

         Washington Monument & Capital from

the Lincoln Memorial

Wednesday morning we headed back into DC for Ryan's conference. After the meeting we had lunch at Old Ebbit's with Ryan's brother Shannon. And because this is a historic oyster bar, we of course had to start off with a dozen oysters. Lunch was fantastic! While Shannon went back to work, Ryan and I walked around The Mall. We decided to go into the National Museum of American History. However, I do have to say that I was not very impressed. I much preferred the art museum and Natural History Museum.

Ryan and I ended our day in DC with a run along The Mall. It was so cool! We were able to run behind the White House, down to the WWII Memorial, and along the Reflecting Pool, down and behind the Lincoln Memorial, up the path to the Washington Monument and back. It was so amazing!! While it's about a 4 mile run, it was very easy because there is so much distraction.

Wednesday night we were able to have dinner with Shannon, Tracy and our nephews at Asian Bistro. It was a great end to our mini-vacay!! We are so thankful to them for making our short trip super awesome!!!  Thank you Shannon, Tracy, Aidan & Silas!!!



DIY - Sofa Table

I just want to preface this by saying that I don’t generally do DIY projects because the super awesome ideas I have in my head, never come to fruition once I start with a project. The creativity never seems to pour out of my fingers, and I get extremely frustrated and angry at myself.

 

When we started this adoption, I started thinking about toy storage -- because to be quite frank, our house is not very kid friendly. I decided that for the living room I wanted a sofa table. I would put it along the one wall in our living room that currently houses three plant tables. I wanted one specifically with a shelf on the bottom so that I could put a couple of wicker baskets under there for convenient toy storage. I began my search at Good Will and St. Vincent’s, and several other thrift stores -- the plan was to acquire this new piece of furniture at a bargain price. However, after months of searching without any luck, I began to look at higher end furniture stores around our area. Still, nothing. I left work Saturday morning heading towards the YMCA, and noticed a sign for a garage sale. I hate going to garage sales. So I drove right by, but after I passed a few driveways, I turned around. Reminder: I hate garage sales. They give me major anxiety.

 

I slowly drove past the house scoping out their stuff. Nothing … but just as I was past their driveway, I noticed a small table in the back. I quickly turned around, and parked my car. There it was. Just a small little table, with an additional shelf on the bottom. It wasn’t nearly as big as what I had envisioned, but here it was. For sale. They wanted $20. I offered $15. They accepted. The young boy manning the cash table offered to carry it to the car for me, and I was on my way.

 

It was one of those pieces of furniture that you just know is “crafty” which is why I thought $15 was a pretty good deal. When I got home and took it out of my car, I noticed that most of the legs were very unstable. The wood was very light, and then legs were painted an ugly hunter green. I figured, no big deal, Ryan and I can whip this in shape in no time.

 

Then Ryan came home. He said, “You paid $15 for this?? You should’ve only paid $4.”

Well then.

Ryan is no carpenter, but eventually the two of us figured out how to stabilize the legs. It took a few long screws, and some wood glue. I’m still not sure how much of all that was necessary, but it was steady.

Except it leaned a bit to the right. It seemed that one of the legs was shorter than the others. Crap.

Not to worry! I pulled out a couple of velvet round pads, stuck one on each of the three legs, and two on the short one -- and you would never know it has a defect!

Then we had to decide what color to paint it. I thought we would just re-paint the legs. Once we did that, Ryan said it looked bad and we should probably paint the rest. I didn’t want it a solid color, and still wanted it to look “crafty”. This is what we ended up with:

Not exactly what I envisioned in my head, but it will work. Now I just have to get a couple Thirty-One Utility bins for toy storage and we’ll be set!

Thirty-One Fundraiser Update

Thank you to everyone who helped make our Thirty-One Fundraiser a success!! We made $362.50!!

Congratulations to our raffle winners: Pam S. and Diana T.!!!

Don't worry, if you missed the first Thirty-One Fundraiser ... there's another one going on right now! My friend Melissa is doing a party and 100% of the commissions made will go towards our adoption fund! We are so blessed for the continued love and support.

To make your purchase, go to: http://www.mythirtyone.com/AnneLittle/
Click on Place an Order, and chose on Melissa Tramel's party.

Here is a PDF for ease of shopping: http://morekids4me.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/fall_2012_catalog.pdf

September Special: For every $31 spent, you will receive 31% off another single item.

Party ends September 14th.

Happy Shopping :)

Porcupine Mountains

Google Maps vs. Mapquest

We left for the Porcupine Mountains late afternoon on Friday. Ryan printed (no GPS for these folks!) directions from Google Maps -- I've always used Mapquest. Needless to say, the directions were pretty much useless once we got to Michigan. With the little service we had available, I used my Blackberry to look up the directions on Mapquest. In the end, our 6 hour trip ended up taking nearly 7 hours.

Our pups got into a brawl within the first 45 minutes,

 

but quickly went back to loving each other.

We also saw a Blue Moon!

 

 

We made it to our camp at about 11:00 p.m., so I took this picture early the next morning. 

 

Day 1 - We woke up to a beautiful blue sky morning. Because we arrived at our campsite so late, we never checked in, so that was our first line of business. Then we took a trip to the visitors center to see what options we had for fun! We drove to 'town' to fill up on gas, and get more ice for our coolers. To our surprise, they were holding a Labor Day Festival. The Festival was basically a sidewalk sale down Main Street. Nothing really cool, but Ryan got suckered into buying raffle tickets from the Humane Society! We never did figure out what the raffle was for ...

 

Our next stop was Lake of the Clouds lookout point. It was so beautiful!!

 

One our way back to camp, we stopped at the beach on Lake Superior. The water was so clear, and so pretty. It was also freezing cold :)

 

 

Beautiful sunset!

 

 

Day 2: We took a 7 mile hike to Summit Peak. We took the pups with us: Dora made it 6 miles, Gipsi had to be carried more than half of the hike. Her little puppy padsies couldn't handle the rough terrain.

 

 

We saw some other critters along our hike too!

 

 

Home: We left early this morning because the weather was kind of yucky. It stormed all night long! Our girls were tired out from a camping weekend ... and quite frankly I was really looking forward to taking a shower!

 

Can you spot the chihuahua?

 

 

See her now?

 

A very tired Dora ...

On the way home, we stopped  in Antigo at a Mexican restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately for Ryan, the rest of the way home, I was singing La Cucaracha. Gotta love roadtrips!!