april is the cruelest month

or, in our case, march is the cruelest. we finished our taxes this weekend. i can't believe people do this every year. this was my first time taking the driver's seat, and i have to admit that it wasn't too fun. of course, this year we had two state tax returns to do plus the federal, but still. i can't believe there are people who actually do this (or perhaps even enjoy doing this) for a living.

we passed our homestudy!

the story of our process to adopt continues...

we found out about a week ago that our background checks came through successfully. that took about three months, which is about as long as we expected. they told us it would take awhile, and it did. but we came back clean. but what else would you expect?

then we had our homestudy done yesterday. i fully expected that we wouldn't pass the first time around since i didn't know exactly what they would be expecting, and surely there would be something that would be wrong. but it was so easy and laid back. we even found out that we could house up to 7 kids in our house. of course, i don't see that happening, but it's good to know we bought a house that will work and we don't have to feel limited by it in terms of how many kids we can adopt.

so our licensor told us that we'll be fully certified by next week (we'll get certificates in the mail or something like that). after that we'll have our family resource consultant come meet with us. then...we'll be free to start seriously looking at particular kids to adopt. or, we could go the foster care route. but once we're certified we'll be able to find out all the details on kids we're interested in.

so it seems like brian and i might actually have kids at some point. and if we get older kids, like we're thinking of getting, we actually might have older kids than some of you who had kids years ago!

there's a spring in my step

that's my way of saying i'm now running again. i got in my 5th run yesterday after not running for over three months! it was torture at times. i had been running consistently for over a year. i got plantar fasciitis whilst i was in london. and it just lingered and lingered.

finally brian and i realized that maybe slight discomfort in the foot is just something i have to deal with, and it seems it might be. but at least i can run again. and it's perfect timing since the weather has been so great over the past week'ish. i went running last night around 7:15 in just shorts and t-shirt. oh man it felt good.

this picture looks like utah, no? it would be fun to do trail running, but also pretty dusty...

spring's coming

brian and i have just purchased our first yard-beautifying/stomach-satisfying item: a burgundy plum tree. the fruit is supposed to very really good, and the nursery said that we'd even get some fruit this summer. we're going to plant the tree tonight. once our camera is back in working order we'll post a picture. right now it kind of looks like a big stick, but that will change...

oh, and btw, we're having some really nice weather now. it's supposed to be in the 50s/60s all week long. how nice is that?

top 10 foods of the 80s

ok, i just saw this online and found it interesting. i have no idea how someone came up with this list, but it did take me back to my childhood...

10. Jawbreakers
so i didn't particularly enjoy jawbreakers. they always seemed a bit too hard.

9. The California Raisins
i had a california raisin toy that i used to like to play with. i thought it was really cool.

8. Cool Ranch Doritos
i didn't realize these came out in the 80s, but it doesn't surprise me. unfortunately, i didn't like these much. i preferred cheetos paws (hm, remember those?) and then, of course, just the regular cheesy doritos.

7. Tri-Color Pasta Salad
i had no idea the 80s is when this became popular either. i do think of tri-colored pasta salad as nice though, real classy.

6. Orange Julius
we actually had an orange julius in our mall. i didn't get many drinks there, but i did love their drinks. it is sad that they seem to have all disappeared.

5. Equal
i didn't have anything to do with equal. what young child cares about sweeteners? if you want something sweet, you eat it.

4. Artificially Flavored Fruit Snacks
for example, fruit by the foot, gushers, or fruit roll-ups. i thought fruit roll-ups were super cool although i rarely got them. i do still love gummy fruit snacks though. thankfully my mom always has those in stock.

3. Tab Cola
my music teacher in elementary school always had a tab on his desk. tab seems to 80s to me.

2. Lean Cuisine
i have nothing to say about lean cuisine either. as if a kid cares about lean cuisines.

1. Capri Sun
oh, how i loved capri suns! we always had them on our family car trips. i loved poking the little straw in and staring at the fun pictures they had on the front of the pouch. they were good, and so fun.

v-day snowshoeing pics

can you tell it was cold out?