Memory Lane

All this waiting for our kids has prompted the trip down memory lane. We are trying to dejunk and consolidate. We've come across pictures and Dave has learned how to scan them into the computer. It's been fun and a little sad. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the passing of Dave's Dad. It also reminded us it has been over 10 years since we "let nature take it's course". How fun to finally know where that course took us. We are so excited for the future. To give these kids a happy home where they can learn and grow and be happy and healthy and have fun growing up. I am amazed at the level of understanding that my niece and nephews here in Texas have of adoption. This has been a positive experience for them. They are all so excited to have some more cousins. We had fun trying to explain to one of my great nephews that our kids will be their mom's cousins just like David is and that he is in a different generation but that they are all still cousins. I think I'll do a family tree with my parents going forward so all the kids can see where they fit into the family.
For those of you keeping up with the process, we have read over 4 inches of paperwork and are still waiting for some more. We have to have all of the info from the CPS file and read it so we have a good understanding of the kids and what they've been through. Once we have read all of the file and asked any questions we get to meet our kids. CPS wants to make sure we are aware of everything before we meet the kids. It is all about the kids and looking out for their feelings. We want to make this as smooth a transition as we can.
Continuing with our practice runs, we had my great nephew, JR, over this weekend. He'd been waiting a year and a half (since his sister had stayed the weekend). So we finally thought we'd better do it now or we wouldn't be able to. Unfortunately for the rest of the kids I don't think anyone else will get a turn since our rooms will soon be full. I hope that getting cousins to play with will make up for it!!! Maybe we'll have a big slumber party next year once the kids get to know their cousins. Who knows what the future holds!!! How exciting to finally be to this point in our lives. To be able to share our wonderful family and awesome friends with these kids. To be able to give them the love and attention and encouragement they deserve.
Well we've looked at the past, we're patiently living the present and we're excited about the future!! Thanks for taking this ride with us and hang onto your hats and glasses cuz this ride is about to get wild!!!!!!!!!!

EVE & ORIO'S WEDDING 1994

Is this the Three Musketeers?

A outtake from one of those "Pirates" movies?

Another Robin Hood movie?

How about something from a bad music video?

Nope, Just Eve & Orio's wedding with Steve Call and Dave Anderson as the 2 merry men! The day was filled with monks chanting, people dressed in Renaissance costumes, a huge rainstrom and lots of fun in the mountains!

ANOTHER BLAST

Dave & Larry with Ice-T. Who would have thought that this guy would end up playing a cop on "Law & Order"!

Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

What is the purpose of so many shoes?
I think Jenafer and I counted over 50 this day! I wonder what happened to all these shoes. Does she still own any of them??

Photo circa 2002

RANDOM THOUGHTS with Dave Anderson....

"Dave, did you do that?" "No Steve, I thought that you did it" "Man, that smells bad...."

Steve gets donutted while asleep. If only breakfast could be this easy!

Doug, wake up! It's 2008! Somebody kiss that man...

Terrilyn wins "Worst Costume" and is forced to wear the clown suit.

Dave & Orio sing "Day-O" to a crowd of thousands but this is never to be repeated again...

LARRY ANDERSON

June 3rd, 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the death of my father, Larry Anderson. Dad died at the early age of 55 of a brain tumor and he is still greatly missed. I know that he is proud of his kids and with what they are doing with their life. I have been reflecting back a lot lately on my Dad as Liz and I prepare to adopt kids. I hope that I will remember all of the good things that my dad taught me and that I can be an even better Father to the kids that will be coming into our life soon. Dad, I hope that they have Pepsi in heaven!

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Jed the Fish a DJ from the world famous KROQ along with DJ Dave and Roadie Chris

Kids Update!!

We got the file yesterday and read all evening. It was a lot of information. Lots of duplicate papers and info. Lots of DFPS forms. And lots of reasons to love these kids and make them our own.

We have notified our case worker that we want to move forward. There are a few forms missing that have been requested and need to be received before we can meet the children. We are learining patience as we follow the steps that CPS requires knowing it is all for the good of the children. It is all about them and we want to make this transition as smooth as possible.

We did find out their birthdates. Our little boy is already 5, and our little girl is 6 (turning 7 this year). And we saw a picture - it was small & from last Sept, but they are adorable. And we love them already!!



Legal Disclaimer - For legal reasons, we will not be posting pictures or identifying information on this blog at this time. As soon as we are legally able, we will post pictures so you can see our family grow. However we will never post identifying information. Specifics (birthdays, sizes, likes/dislikes, etc.) will be communicated to family & friends when we are legally free to do so. Thank you for your understanding.

Feeling unappreciated at work lately?....

THE POLICE

Yesterday I went to The Police concert in Dallas. Sting and Crew were reunited (cause it feels so good) and touring the world. I had bought a ticket for a friend of mine but he couldn't go so I finally found another friend to go but he bowed out hours before the show... Lucky for me I was able to talk Neil van der Upwich into saddling up one more time and go to the show. Once again we went to "Freebirds" for some awesome burritos and then off to the concert. Elvis Costello was the opening act followed by the mighty Police! We were sitting in the grass section (cheap seats) and waiting for the police to set up when we notice that people working for the concert venue were passing out tickets. I worked my way over and asked about the tickets which they then gave me 2. Yeah! We ended up in the 2 end seats in row H of the middle section. We had a perfect view of the stage and I have never been so close to the stage (unless you count when i worked security for the B-52's show in California). This was a great experience not only to see and hear great music but to be up close and not have to rely upon binoculars or the video screens. This caps off a fun 6 months of concerts starting with the Oak Ridge Boys, Van Halen, Roger Waters and The Police. Now it is time to bring kids into our family and make them the most important thing in our life! Maybe I will end up at a Hanna Montana concert next. It worked for a friend of mine.... But more on that later!

Selected!

We've been selected!!

Next step - we will get the childrens' file next week and read through it. If we still want to move forward we will have a meeting with the childrens' case worker and anyone else involved.

Then we will get to meet our kids!!

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Keep praying for these kids, their lives will be changing drastically and that's tough when you're only 4 & 6.

Mom-to-be & Dad-to-be

Jury Duty

After 39 1/2 years on earth I finally got a Jury Summons. Last Monday I got up early (they said parking was free but limited), brought a good book and headed north to the new Collin County courthouse in McKinnney. Got a great parking space - getting there an hour early paid off. I sat in the truck and started a good book that Dave had bought about adopting an other child. I finally got out and waiting with all the other "jurers" until the doors were open. After I got in and went through security I entered a very large room with uncomfortable seats. It took about an hour to overfill the room. And then the true waiting began. After a while the girl came in and asked us not to shot the messenger. She then read the list of names that could leave but had to come back on Wednesday. I wasn't on it! Then she said she was waiting for the other judges to let her know how many of us they needed for the day. She came back a while later and had another list. This list would go directly to a court room. She read that list and I was not on it. As soon as she walked out she was handed another list and she came back to read it. I was not on it. A while later she came with another list. I was not on it. After what seemed like forever she came in to tell us that she was still waiting for the last judge to get back to her. Finally she came back in and said she had heard from the judge and he didn't need any of us and we were free to go. She reminded us that this counted for our jury duty and we would not be called for another 24 months. So then I went shopping, got some lunch and went home and did the dishes. I was actually excited to go back to work the next day!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEVE!

Today is Steve Marshall's birthday and I thought that I would share a few things that I remember about Steve.

I remember Steve and I kidnapping Michelle Sims so that Brad could propose to her. Being the good friends that we were we kidnapped her before dawn and had her ready only to find Brad asleep! Lucky for us Brad woke up with a little help and broke a few speed records to propose to Michelle as the sun came up.

Who looks more like “Bob’s Big Boy” then Steve!

Who’s a bigger fan of Barry Manilow then Steve “Fanilow” Marshall!

While the girls were on a planned scavenger hunt Steve also helped me out with my big proposal to Liz by taking me to get the roses etc. on the way down to Laguna Beach. You would never see me more stressed out then that day! That Yukon sure did get a lot of miles!

Truck! (Did you ever get one? I did and I am still paying for it!)

Steve’s excellent voice singing music from “Phantom of the Opera”.

Telling Liz that Steve was my brother, it is not hard to believe since he does look more like my brother then my brother! Liz soon figured out that my “real” brother was coming home from his mission!

The night we Dee Jayed on the Queen Mary for a company Christmas party where the owner gave a speech about firing all of the “loser” employees…. One by one!

That cool leather jacket!

Talking Rachel into marrying him. That was impressive!

Happy Birthday Steve!

ROGER WATERS

On Friday, May 2, 2008 Neil van der Upwich and I went to the Roger Waters concert in Dallas. Roger Waters played bass for the band Pink Floyd before going solo in the 80's and wrote a lot of their best song from such albums like "Wish You Were Here", "Dark Side of the Moon" and "The Wall". Since Pink Floyd is not turning anymore then this show was the closest I was going to get and it was great! The first half of the show was Roger Waters solo hits and Pink Floyd hits. The second half of the show was the entire album of "Dark Side of the Moon" from start to finish! As part of the encore he played "Another Brick in the Wall". What a great concert!

http://www.guidelive.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/columnists/tmaurstad/stories/DN-waters_0503gl.ART.State.Edition2.46b23e6.html

TREE TRIMMING

Last Saturday our friend Kit Allowitz came over and trimmed our front trees. It seems that in a past life Kit did a bit of tree trimming here and there. He did an awesome job and now we have more sunlight without losing our shade! His kids came over to play with the dogs and to make sure that he did a good job! We will miss the Allowitz family when they move to Austin next month!

PS: Kit, if the HR/Training thing doesn't work out you can always fall back on tree trimming....

The First Lady & Daughter

Tonight Dave & I meet Laura & Jenna Bush. They were at the Borders Bookstore in Dallas to sign their new book "Read All About It!" We also bought Jenna's book "Ana's Story" and had her sign it. It was the most controlled book signing either of us have ever been to.
Dave went in the morning to buy the books and get our wrist bands - Blue, the 5th group to go in. We meet after work and got their at about 6:45pm. It officially started at 7pm but when we were walking up there were already people leaving. We heard latter they started early. After waiting for a long time (we don't know how long because neither of us had our cell phones. They told us not to bring in bags and we knew security would be tight so we brought in the bare minimum.) When we entered the store we had what little we had searched and then had to walk through a metal detector. Then we headed to one side of the store, back a few aisles, then to almost the other side of the store. We were stopped and allowed to walk one at a time to the back of the store (I think that was the exit route and Secret Service didn't want it blocked) As we walked past you could see where Laura & Jenna were sitting - about 3 Secret Service were facing them and about 3 were facing us. We then walked in a circle around this section of the store before arriving at the end of the line where we were reminded to not put our hands in our pockets or make any sudden moves. We spent about 30 seconds in front of them - no small talk or hand shaking. Then we could stand behind a rope and take pictures. Here are some - not very good but, hey, it is the first lady & daughter. I also took some pictures of the books and autographs. It was an experience and since they will soon be neighbors we thought we should welcome them!!!

Our rent-a-kids came and spent a weekend with us while their grandma (Liz's Sister) rested after surgery & their mom & dad(Liz's niece & nephew-in-law) went to work. We put them to work in the yard. The three sitting on the dog kennel clipped twigs inbetween sitting on the dog kennel!! JR willingly mowed our entire backyard and most of the front yard. And if you've seen our backyard that is quite a feat for a 10 year old. After the work was done, we all headed for the city pool. Then back home for a BBQ. JR & Dave are quite a team!!

On Thursday, April 24th 2008 I went to the to the book signing for Valerie Bertinelli's book "Losing It". When at the front of the line I heard Valerie tell her boyfriend, Tom, "There's a 7-11 across the street, I am sure that they have Ibuprofen for you". Since I am not known for being shy I said "You need Ibuprofen?" Turns out that Tom had a bad sinus headaches so I told Tom and Valerie that I sold Ibuprofen and that after she signed the book I would "stock them up". Valerie was super nice and down to earth and I had a good time talking to her and her boyfriend Tom. Now if they had just given me some VIP concert tickets for the Van Halen show that night in Dallas.....

Denver

On my trip to Denver I got to hang out with our old neighbors, Doug & Kit, and their two adorable kids. I stopped by Sunday night after I got into town and was feed some great ribs! After having some fun with the kids I headed back to my hotel. I was glad to be safe in my room when our hotel was robbed that night. One of my co-workers witnessed the robery. And another came back to the hotel when the police were running around the courtyard looking for the man. The one thing we couldn't figure out was why would you rob a hotel - do they even have any cash? To make the week even more exciting some crazy maniac hit our mirror while we were waiting in the center lane to make a left turn. After seeing parts fly we stopped and checked it out and luckily our mirror bounced right back. After two days of training, I headed back to Texas after our plane flew around a storm. To top off my wonderful week, I woke up Thursday with a horrible stomache virus.