The New Bed

After hearing about it for months and months, guess what? It's finally complete. The bed that was purchased months ago is put together. The mattress that was ordered several months ago has finally arrived. The duvet has been stuffed with the down comforter.
Everything is in its place. Everything, but one of the Euro shams, that is. We cannot seem to find it . It was not in the closet beneath the stairwell like the other two were, so we are a bit at a loss about where we might have put it. There is a chance that it is in the pantry, but we won't be finding that out until at least Saturday.
We've done really well this week at not eating out, in fact, we were not even going to eat out tonight. The only problem is that our friend Abbie called and she is in town. So, we are going to go eat with her at Macaroni Grill. It seems like every time that she comes into town we eat there, but that's okay with us, because we LOVE Macaroni Grill!

Homevisit Update

We had our homevisit today and Lisa, the caseworker, was right on time. Of course, she didn't mind that I was intent on taking pictures of the event. She was, as always, full of energy.
This is Lisa when she saw all of the bedding that my parents bought for Reed for Christmas. She agreed that he is set. She thought that the color of the room was really pretty too.
Lisa found our bed interesting, as most people would if they came in and saw a bed that was completely made, yet had no mattress. I didn't take pictures of me demonstrating to her that our fire alarms work properly.
She smiled when she saw our wedding pictures and vows on her way down the stairs. You would not believe the energy that this woman has. An in the end, we were approved. I took a picture of the check so that you all could know that we did in fact pass our homevisit.

After several phone calls to clarify different things today. Lisa called me to tell me that she had not only completed the homestudy, but that she had given it to the director of the agency to approve. Hopefully, she will be calling me tomorrow or the next day to tell me that the homestudy is ready to send to our agency. Then, we'll be on the list soon after that. Hopefully, there will be some referrals this month and we will get one!

Out with the Old ...And in with the New

Quish, spewsh, pashhuish, quuuuiisshh, chuggy, chuggy, sissss. Those were the noises that we heard as we got out of our car last night at 9:30 PM after enjoying supper and a visit with the Sprinkles.

I knew, without a doubt, that the noise I heard was coming from the water heater. For several months there has been a slow drip in the water heater. We kept meaning to have someone come and look at it, but it seemed rather minor. Anyway, the water heater breathed its last yesterday and so it was time to call in reinforcements. Abbey teaches with a lady whose husband works as a plumber. We called and he got the information about our water heater. He came about 7:30 tonight and replaced the unit.
Now, we have nice new water heater and hopefully, in the morning we will have nice hot water!
Of course, timing on the water heater going out could not have been better. Tomorrow is the home visit and I was not excited about not having hot water for the case worker to feel. Now, that is not to worry and you can see from the picture the house is vacuumed. I can really only take credit for vacuuming the bedroom and the stairwell. Abbey worked really hard getting everything clean. She did a phenomenal job!
Jill, a lady that writes with Abbey sent us a care package with a notebook that she titled "Things to Do While You Wait for Your Baby Kit." She and her husband adopted 2 children and she knows all the thoughts and feelings we are going through. Each month we have a different gift. This month we got journals that we can give to Reed to tell him about the process.

*** IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT ***

You'll notice from the first picture that something weird has happened in the Land house. We went to, now you might need to sit down, the grocery store today! Yes, that's right, after 3 months of not grocery shopping, we went to the grocery store.

Part of our goal for the new year, is to actually eat at home some.
We bought everything from cleaning supplies to frozen pizzas. The situation was so desperate that we did not even have any Wal-Mart sacks. Now, who runs out of Wal-Mart sacks?
In case your still having trouble believing that we went to the grocery store, I took a picture of the receipt. Hopefully, we will be dining in more than out this year.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Here's a quick rundown of our New Year's Eve celebration. First we went to Bonefish Grill in Cool Springs. It was pretty good. Or, as our friends the Sprinkls say, "It was a memory." It wasn't bad, but it wasn't the greatest. For some reason, there is no steak like Demo's.

From Bonefish, we went to Maggie Moo's for dessert. There was a problem with Maggie Moo's, however, since they were closed. What kind of ice cream shop closes early on New Year's Eve? So, we decided to go to Cold Stone Creamery which was great! It was my first time to ever go to CSC, and I really liked it.

From CSC, we went to see "We Are Marshall". My cousin Jim, is one of the football players, although I never saw him. I probably would need to watch the movie with him, so that he could point it out for me. It was a great movie though.

On the agenda for today, Abbey, first has to get out of bed. Then, we are supposed to go eat breakfast somewhere. I'm hoping for IHOP. Then we have to go to grocery shop. We have a bunch of things on our goal list to accomplish today, like getting the nursery straightened up, painting the dresser in the nursery (sorry, Ava, it was great while it lasted), and childproofing the place!

Have a safe and happy day!

Chickfila Cares and Gilmore Girls Bonanza

You'll remember that Abbey and I have ended our tradition of going to CFA on Tuesday nights. In the interest of making sure customers of the great northeast Nashville metroplez have great customer service, I sent an email to corporate CFA. Corporate CFA then sent my message to our local one.
I received a phone call from the owner of CFA last week who apologized profusely and promised to take care of the situation and send us a little something in the mail. He sent us two free sandwich coupons. I am sure that we will use them as soon as posisble.
We had set up a goal list for things that we wanted to accomplish this weekend. We made the list and have been adding to it ever since. Today, we check off 3 things off the list. We have a few things to do tomorrow and then we will have some time on Monday to accomplish things. In between checking the goals off our list and a slightly longer than normal nap, we have been watching our Christmas present from Ava. The fifth season of Gilmore Girls. We are on the fourth disc now.

One of our goals was TARGET, I know, I know, that's not a hard one for us to reach, but we did finally make it tonight. We had a couple of giftcards that were burning holes in our wallets. We got some cool stuff though and a few things for the baby.

SOME Assembly Required

We got a bed for Christmas from the IL's. We've been so excited about putting it up, so as soon as we got home yesterday, I went to work at unpacking the gillion wood pieces. When I got finished unpacking the boxes, there was something missing, the instructions and hardware. I called the store and they said that they had a set of hardware there and I could come back to Goodlettsville to get it!
This is not a happy face as I drove back to the store that should have given me the right stuff in the first place!
Once the hardware was where it needed to be, the assembly went fairly well.
The bed is complete and all of the gillion pieces were used, except for a few small screws, but trust me, this bed is SOLID! Everything would be fine if the furniture store had done its job and gotten our mattress that we bought in August ordered! They called last night at 7:00 to tell us it wouldn't be here until next week! So, we will be sleeping in the guest room until then!
I know, Ava, we couldn't believe it either!

Dear Reed

Dear Reed,

Today we had our individual interviews at Bethany for the homestudy. They went really well, we think. We took a picture with Lisa, our caseworker. She is new and she is so excited about helping us get you. She has been working hard to get everything just right, so that the adoption agency in Taiwan will want to get you to us as soon as possible. Reed, we love you so much and we cannot wait until we can get to hug you.

For Christmas, your grandparents Enna and Grandtra got you all of your bedding. We think that you will like it a lot. Aunt Ava got you a cute bib that says "My Aunt Loves Me." Your not even here and you are already getting gifts. That's good! You mom and I have been working really hard to get your bedroom ready. We don't have your bed yet, but since Lisa is coming next week to look at our house, we have some more important things to do.

We need to childproof the cabinets and we have to get some fire extinguishers. I hope that you like elephants because you are going to have a lot in your room.

I love you and I pray for you all the time.

love, daddy

Our Presents

I know that you all have been dying to see what Abbey and I got for each other.

Abbey got a Java Blue Vera Bradley rug. You will be able to see it better when we have our newly redecorated bedroom done. I'll blog more about that in a minute.










I got some new luggage. I have been begging for new luggage for at least 5 years now, so I was thrilled to get it. It is red, so hopefully it will be easy to spot when it comes off the carousel at the airport.

A Very Drakey Christmas

Here's the story,

Of a lovely lady,

Who had brought up two very lovely girls.

Both of them had hearts of gold,

Like their mother,

The youngest one in pearls.

Here's the story,

of a man named Drakey,

Who was busy with three girls in his home.

They were four peeps,

Living all together, yet they were all grown-.

Till the days, when both daughters met these fellows,

and they knew that this was much more than a hunch.

That this group,

Must somehow form a family.

That's the way we all became the Drakey Bunch,

The Drakey Bunch- the Drakey Bunch

That's the way we became the Drakey Bunch!

We had an excellent Christmas here in Bartlett with the parental Drakes. Abbey and I got here in time to go to the Christmas Eve service with them at Bellevue. Afterward, we decided that we needed some nourishment so we found ourselves in the drive-thru at BackYard Burger. We sat at the sign for a while when we gathered that we may not actually be waiting on food at an open restaraunt. We drove around and I got out, where this girl nodded that they were indeed closed. So, we settled for Krystal and went home.

Brookie and Ava arrive around 9:30ish and we all went to bed shortly thereafter. Brookie ate his seafood gumbo first, which it looked like he enjoyed very much.

We woke up around 7:30 Christmas morning and opened our presents. Abbey and I got our bed. She got some cookbooks, some other things, and a jewelry bureau which is beautiful. I also got her a CHI straight iron. Yeah, it doesn't sound that great does it, but she has been begging for one. I got some pottery, some great personalized notecards (I've been out for quite some time), a new calendar, and several other things. Abbey got me two ornaments, the traditional Starbucks ornaments, and the cutest ornament from Hallmark called "Parents-to-be." You'll see our main presents to each other on a future blog.

My family Christmas

We had our family Christmas on Saturday at Bobby and Alyson's house. Yes, I've been there ... lots of times, and how many times have they been to our house? None, yeah, that's right. I'm not bitter.
Anyway, they have a really nice house, so it was great to get to have Christmas there. Papa came and my BIG brother Trae was there too. He was with his new fiance` Amy.

We played dirty Santa with giftcards this year for the first time. I think that it went really well, except for some people really didn't understand the game too much. It was fun though and in the end, we all got something that we could use.

This morning, we woke up and got Christmas presents from my parents. Abbey got several nice things such as a Paula Deen cookbook, pepper grinder, McCarty bunny, and a Vera Bradley lunchbox. I got three sweaters, a nail and screw organizer, and we both got pillows to go on our new bed. The real winner was Reed though, who got every bit of his bedding for the nursery! That's awesome!

The Trips

For those of you who don't know, my parents live in Jackson and Abbey's parents live in Memphis. This means that WE get to travel on Christmas. Until we have a baby, that is. We want to make sure that our children open up their Christmas presents at their own house, so we will have to figure out a new travel schedule at that point. Until then, it's pack up the car and head south with a touch of west, then north, then east back home. Abbey and I have developed a great plan for travel. First, she talks and I listen. Then when she is done talking, it is time for her nap. After Abbey naps, it is usually time for a little refreshment. What is better refreshment than Chick-fil-a sweet tea. I always get a large, Abbey usually gets a medium.
After a few sips, it is time for my nap. My, oh my, can I take a nap or what? I tell Abbey she can wake me up when I start snoring, but I think she just turns the radio up.

When I wake up, we usually stop for a meal or something and I take the wheel again. That's what we did on the way to Jackson.

This afternoon, as we traveled to Memphis, we followed the same scenario. I was not thinking though, and didn't grab a shot of Abbey. Just imagine her in the picture below, but cover up with a pea coat and have a KING SIZE pillow (still in the packaging) laid across her.

I, of course, enjoyed my nap immensely! See, what happens when you work together! Everyone gets a nap!

My LITTLE Brother

My little brother Bobby is one of those people who gets offended easily. On a recent trip home to Mississippi, he informed me that he and Alyson's feelings were hurt because they were never on the blog. Well, not wanting to hurt my younger (SPOILED) brother's feelings, I have taken the pictures and am dedicating this blog to him. Although, I have explained to him that there are two VERY convenient ways to get to Nashville, either take 55 to 40 or 20 to 65 and you are set. Visitors ALWAYS find themselves on our blog, and if you didn't know it, EVERYONE is welcome at our house. We have two extra bedrooms and a comfy couch. If we run out of space, we've even got a pretty comfortable air mattress and a really nice Hampton Inn. "I'm cool, I know it."

"Bring it on. I've got my police uniform on." "Jeff, you can't get shot if the gun doesn't have a bullet in it."

"Has anyone seen my bullet?"
We all know who the better looking one in this picture is...the one on the RIGHT!

Homestudy Interview and What We've Up To Today

Our homestudy interview went very well yesterday. Our new caseworker is really excited to be working with us, so I think that they are going to be very efficient at getting our homestudy done. We have our individual interviews next week, and then we have the home visit the next Wednesday, so be praying for us. If anyone would like to come over and help us to child-proof our cabinets, you are welcome to do so.

We made it to Jackson about 9:15 last night. We had an uneventful trip other than a good bit of rain.

Today we woke up and went to Kroger and McAllister's for lunch. Knowing that we always are on the lookout for some great Christmas ornaments, we went to Callaway Gardens for some good buys. Unfortunately, there weren't any. We then went to Target and picked up a few last minute Christmas gifts. Next we traveled to Fads-n-Frames where we were hoping to find a great deal on a Christmas tree. For some reason, they don't seem to think it is time to put their trees on sale just yet.

For supper, we had a delicious meal of Fernando's Tacos! You all know from previous posts that we absolutely LOVE Fernando's and do not miss it when we are in Mississippi. Tomorrow, we are going to Bobby and Alyson's for Christmas with my immediate family.

Adoption Update

We have our first homestudy interview today at 11:00. Yesterday, I received a call from Bethany from a new caseworker. This is number 3 so far that we have worked with. Bethany is apparently going through some reorganization stuff and they are taking us along for the ride. Anyway, our new caseworker seems as aggressive as we are. She told me that when she was assigned our case, they told her that we were aggressively pursuing adoption so she wanted to set up a time for the interview.

She said that she had Tuesday and Wednesday of next week available. I asked her what she had on Thursday (meaning today) and she said that she was completely free. So, I said we'll be there at 11:00. We're excited but we really don't know what to expect.

After the homestudy, we are headed to my parent's house in Jackson, Mississippi. We will be there until Christmas eve and then it is time to go to Memphis. We got our bedroom painted yesterday, it is really pretty. I'll post pictures once the new bed is set up in it.