The past couple of weeks...AND...what is this hovering over Indy?

Well, our posts have been few and far between. It seems all we get accomplished is work, laundry, pay bills, work, go to grocery, work, etc...

We were lucky enough to get out of the lovely Richmond for a few days over Rett's spring break. Since we are trying to save $$ for an adoption that we hope happens in the coming year, we decided to not take a fancy trip to Florida or etc. Instead, we reserved a suite in downtown Indy. We had a good time. We acted as if we were tourists. We shopped and ate lunch in the Mass Ave. district, went to the top of the monument at Monument Circle, shopped at Circle Center, ate at several cool restaurants downtown and more. On the way home we went to Clay Terrace in Carmel and did some other shopping in the Carmel and Fishers areas. It was nice to get away. We took the laptop and did not even check email. It was nice.

When we returned home, we were welcomed by Bill and Mindy's hilarious dog, Sandy. Sandy is staying with us while they go out of town for Spring Break. Kyler tolerates Sandy. Grissom, the fearless cat, hates Sandy.

When we checked our mail we found a large envelope from our home study agency. Since our homestudy if finished and is in China, we thought this could not be good. It was not the best news. The great ol' State of Indiana mandated new requirements for adoptions. We have to update many items every twelve months until the adoption is complete. What a bunch of crap. It is bad enough that ANYONE can crank out a kid without having to "ask for the government's blessing". Now we are punished because our adoption is taking longer than expected. Chances are that we will have to do all of this again next year. Here is what we have to do, AGAIN!

• FBI National Criminal Check
• Indiana Limited State Criminal Check
• Sex and Violent Offender Registry Check
• Local Criminal History Check
• Child Protective Services-National Criminal Check
• Physician Update Letter
• Copy of Driver's License
• Birth Certificates (ever so intelligent lawmakers, think about it, my birth info did not change over the past year)
• Marriage License
• Pet Vaccination Records.

So, here we go again...keep posted, we will tell you how we progress with these tasks AGAIN.

When we fired up the computer and checked email we had an email from our coordinator at our adoption agency. She quit. Lovely.

In addition, we have to start the process to get a new I-171 from the Office of Homeland Security, Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). The Feds think that our fingerprints will change or something. So now we have to spend another day at the CIS office, getting new fingerprints and spending a small bundle of money (it costs between $400-500) for a new I-171.

Wow, this posting took a turn towards the pessimistic side. But oh well, with the wait getting longer, we have nothing better to do than do the whole "paperchasing" thing...

Other interesting stuff (well, interesting to me), I put new pads, rotors , brakeline and valve cover gasket on the wrangler. We took the top off and dusted it off since it sat all winter in the garage. It is ready for summer fun. I renewed our license plates and got the new "In God We Trust Plates". They are available for no additional charge. You just have to go to the license branch to get them. You cannot get them via the renewal notice if you renew your plates over the Internet or mail. We planted a tree in the back yard and will plant another one after we remove the the swimming pool (Thank you Randy and Kathy for offering to take this money sucking maintenance nightmare off our hands...they do not have the tree issues we have).

Well, it is time to get to bed. Back to work for the both us in just about 10 hours. I do not even want to think about the voicemail, email and other issues that may be waiting for me. I think I will do a few more thoughtless items such as browse ebay and watch race recap shows this evening.

Thanks for tuning in...I almost forgot, I did not even touch on the strange round object that we saw above the hotel across from ours (see picture above). I will not dive into that subject on this post...not that it has anything to do with UFO's or something...you would really think I have lost it...

Have a great week.