Unsinkable

Charles is at class and I am home with the kids.  I was thinking about trying to do some cleaning and general damage control on our house before the holidays.  We've eaten dinner and the kids are reading books on the couch.  I tell Dillon that if they want to get into their pajamas they can watch a video for an hour before bedtime.  Dillon said, "I don't want to watch a movie.  Today is a special day!"  I asked why it was special, and he said, "I am Celebrating the Day of Rose!"

And I guess we are.  We all dressed up and went to the Children's Court Building this morning.  A few family members met us there. We hung out for a while in a waiting room outside the courtroom (having to be shushed often by folks that worked there) being kinda loud.  At one point, a probably sixteen-year-old boy was led out of the courtroom in tears and handcuffs.  We were told that adoptions were the only nice thing that happened there.

But we were called into the courtroom and Dillon, Charles and I were sworn in and called to testify.  Charles got most of the tough questions, I mostly just had to affirm that what he said was correct (and one time stop him from inadvertently lying under oath-he can't remember dates to save his life!)  Then the judge asked how Dillon was doing being a big brother, and he shouted "GREAT!"  D got asked a few more questions, our social worker testified, and we were pronounced Rose's parents.  It was pretty cool.  The judge let us take some pictures with him and D got to adjourn the court and bang the gavel.  (If you want to see the pics email me for the link.)  Then the court reporter or whatever gave D and Rose presents from Harley Davidson.  T-shirts and an art supply set, which was really sweet.

Afterwards, we went downtown and checked out some Christmas displays, tried to take a family photo (that was a non-starter), and then went for lunch and ice cream at Bella's Fat Cat (home of giant burgers and giant veggie burgers). It was great, I was hoping for something a bit more upscale to celebrate the occasion, but then I let Dillon pick, so I guess I deserved it.  But who could really be mad about fantastically large cheeseburgers?

The rest of the day was just home stuff, but it was nice to have a day together…  The kids were particularly sweet to each other.  They sat in a beanbag chair with one of those scary stuffed animals where if you punch it in the stomach it sings, "Deck The Halls" really loud in a voice of a chorus of kids.  And my kids tried to sing along but they didn't know and couldn't understand the words, so it was mostly an hour of "ma na na la da da da…  FALALALALALALALALA!"  But it was way less irritating than it sounds, really!  Although I suppose everyone thinks that about their own kids.

Tomorrow we go for our court date for the Wisconsin readoption of Rose!  This process enables her to get a U.S. birth certificate, social security number, etc.  So we have a special day planned, we're keeping D out of school so he can come with.

The courthouse is first thing, and then we're going to go check out the Christmas displays in downtown Milwaukee…

Should be a lovely day, I am looking forward to it!

Dillon and Rose are getting ready to brush their teeth in the bathroom.

Dillon cuts a loud fart.

Rose says, "Bless you." 

Okay, so I know the official 'twelve days of Christmas' are the days between Christmas and the feast of the Ephiphany (which happens to be a huge Ethiopian holiday, by the way).  But my husband is giving me the best Christmas gift EVER this year, sort of along those lines…

He told me to make a list of the twelve things that irritate me most around our house, and he would fix them.  Which is AWESOME, because I try very hard not to make the 'honey do' lists, despite my propensity for list-making, I figure he can prioritize his own time.  Which doesn't always work out great for my priorities, you know?

So my list has twelve little things that need to be taken care of…  Money's a bit tight (whose isn't?) so we were going low-budget anyway, but there are just inexpensive-to-fix things that sincerely make me crazy every time I see them.  Like the three foot cubed broken computer server hanging out in my parking spot in the garage (thanks for giving that to Charles, dad!).  Or the bathroom faucet dripping.  But I've made my list, and my husband has it in hand… I'll let you know how it goes, but I am pretty excited about this gift!