Seek The Substantial

Seek the substantial in life.

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  • Check it out…

    Yesterday Leslie Rader and I went to 1st Monday and stumbled upon an awesome booth called “Come Together Fair Trading Company”.  “Come Together Trading” is a retailer in Canton, TX that sells products made by individuals in developing countries.  I was surprised and excited to hear about such a great retailer in our area.

    Check out their website for some really cute, handmade products.  You won’t have to feel guilty about spending money because each purchase will benefit an individual or organization in a developing country!

    http://www.cometogethertrading.com

  • DTE!!

    Okay…I’ve talked to some others who are adopting from Ethiopia on our Yahoo Chat Group.  It looks like our DTE date is Friday, 8/27/10!  I couldn’t be any more excited.  Well, maybe I will be when we get our referral phone call!!

    Everyone pray for things to move quickly!

  • Seth is really slacking off…

    I’ve decided Seth isn’t doing a good enough job keeping everyone updated on how our adoption is going so, I might have to take over Puppy Dog Blue for a while! Ignore my poor writing skills and try to remember that I teach Chemistry, not English!!

    It’s been a very exciting adoption month!  We were fingerprinted, received US government approval, and mailed our dossier to America World Adoption for review.

    Our dossier is all the paperwork we have been gathering over the past 6 months and we are currently waiting for it to be sent to Ethiopia.  For those of you who don’t know all the adoption acronyms, DTE means “Dossier to Ethiopia”.  This is a huge step in the process because our DTE date is also the date we are put on the waiting list for one child or twins!  Usually, dossier’s are sent to Ethiopia on Fridays and we expected to be DTE today.  However, we received an email and were told that our dossier will be mailed on Monday.  We’re unsure right now if we are currently on the waiting list or if we will be added on Monday but we were assured that our dossier being sent on Monday will not delay the process or our waiting time.  We will see but all I have to say is YIPPEE!!!

    I’ll let you guys know what number we are on the waiting list as soon as we find out but it looks like we’ll be about #27!

  • Grandma’s 87th Birthday

    Another belated post, but you will note that I figure out how to add text to the right sidebar to detail our adoption timeline. That’s going to be updated with the help of Sweet Sweet.

    On Easter weekend, Sweet Sweet and I traveled to Castroville to celebrate my Grandmother’s 87th birthday. After Miranda and I arrived, we had never been out to the lake, just outside of Rio Medina and so Sweet Sweet and I took the drive. Unfortunately, it appeared that the only way that we could really get inside the lake was to pay for admission and that wasn’t going to happen on my watch. Nevertheless, we did take decent pictures.







    Next we went out to my Aunt Anne and Uncle Gene’s house along with my parents. I went with Gene and my old man to look at cattle and stuff. I wasn’t much use, but I did take some pictures of Gene’s pasture as well as a singular tree out the middle of the pasture. I know, I’m quite artistic.











    We went to church early Sunday morning (I think 7:30 a.m. Mass) and afterwards we were to celebrate Grandma’s birthday. Uncle David had cleared out a space not far from Grandma’s house. This is looking back at her home:





    Serious business with Dad, David and Grandma:



    Sweet Sweet, Valerie, and Mom:



    I think here we’re toasting Grandma’s birthday after singing to her:





  • Sweet Sweet’s Half Marathon

    How long is it appropriate to wait before writing about something?  I don’t know that I can answer that, but I’ve delayed, for whatever reason, about writing about Sweet Sweet’s half-marathon for quite some time.  Sweet Sweet entered into the 2010 Rock and Roll Half Marathon, which was run on March 27, 2010.  Yep, these pictures are at least a month old.  In any event, I could not be more proud of my wife as it’s never easy to train for something like this.  She was very much worried about how she would do and I kept telling her that I wasn’t worried about her performance.

    In any event, we get up fairly early on Saturday morning and drive to Fair Park where we park the car and then she and I take a bus to the starting line, which was downtown (near City Hall).  That morning, it was pretty chilly, but at the very least, it was going to be a beautiful day.  Here’s Sweet Sweet preparing and getting all sorts of excited:







    And waving good-bye before she takes off where I won’t see her for a couple of hours.



    And self-portrait.



    A side story to this is my journey, or non-journey, back to the starting line. There were supposed to be buses available and it was short enough for me to walk, but to be honest, I wasn’t real comfortable doing this. I called Justin and Ashley (and Elam) and they picked me up, where we ended up driving to Fair Park. Randy, Landy and Chris, Tony and Leslie (Luke and Jake) all showed up to see Sweet Sweet finish. Of course, she apparently ran right in front of me and I didn’t see her run at any point in the race.











  • Adoption Update :: 04.21.10

    Making promises that I cannot keep seems to be my motto, especially when it comes to PDB. I promised that I’d keep everyone updated, but I’ve been awfully bad about posting photos from recent events in my life, in addition to not keeping everyone informed about the status of Sweet Sweet and my adoption. I keep telling people that the truth of the matter is that we are in a very boring period in regards to the adoption process. Getting our acceptance to the adoption agency has been, by far, the best part of the process because it meant that we were on our way in regards to our ultimate goal of starting a family. Since then it’s been all about paperwork.

    Here’s a quick timeline of the events thus far:

    January 7, 2010 : Applied to the adoption agency.
    February 2, 2010 : We were accepted into the adoption agency’s program.
    February 26, 2010 : We received our homestudy packet.
    March 31, 2010 : We mailed our completed homestudy packet.
    April 2, 2010 : Mailed our state certification.
    April 8, 2010 : Received completed state certification.
    April 26, 2010 : First homestudy interview.

    The homestudy and adoption packets were all about getting things done. We asked favors from friends for recommendation letters, we had physicals completed, we had our home inspected for fire safety and health safety, we completed questionnaires that detailed everything from how Sweet Sweet and I felt about each other, to how we felt about raising children, to our family relationships, etc. Obviously, a big part of the process is about making sure that we’re proper parents and that we’ll treat our adopted child with the same love and respect if we were able to have our own. It seems strange that we have to go to such great lengths to make sure that we’ll both be good parents, but I don’t think of this process as being burdensome or tiring or intrusive, rather that this is the road we have to travel and I firmly believe that this is happening for a reason. I don’t begrudge anyone for the path that we’re taking. It is what it is, and I just pray that it all works out in the end.

    Perhaps the biggest news is that Ethiopia passed a law that would require that we travel to Ethiopia twice rather than the one time. With international adoption those are the types of things that you have to adjust to on the fly. Laws can change on a whim. Obviously, we would prefer to travel just one time. Again, it’s the process and we’ve accepted that. It absolutely puts a strain on our budget in terms of adoption as we did not expect that we would have to travel twice, but it’s not the end of the world either.

    We have our first homestudy scheduled for Monday afternoon and after this, I’ll update everyone on how that went and what it was like. I believe that we’ll hae to have at least two or three more homestudy meetings with our case worker.

  • Christmas and New Years Eve

    It’s only a few weeks late, which is great for me.

    First, Miranda and I wanted to do Christmas cards and rather than take pictures of ourselves, we decided that our puppy dogs would be much more appropriate.

    Ollie





    Zoey



    Blue





    Sweet Sweet and I also purchased a Furminator for Blue as her shedding was becoming something that required a daily vacuum. This was the first day’s of fur that was removed from our beloved Blue.





    We then had out annual Christmas party at the Hetmers (sorry for the picture quality).











    Then was Christmas at our house, and Elam was the star of the show.









    But Elam was more interested in my new pair of boots.



    And then Sweet Sweet’s shoes.



    Next up was Christmas at my parents’ house where we also celebrated Hogan’s B-Day.























    It somewhat snowed on Christmas morning:



    And the dogs get their Christmas toys.









    Christmas with Ann.



    And I get a Texas Tech snuggie.



    Sweet Sweet and I, J-Five and A-Five and C-Het and L-Het before New Year’s Eve dinner at 4 Winds.







  • Football Gets in the Way of Blogging

    It’s my annual tradition of ignoring PDB while football season is in full swing. It’s going to happen every year. Just part of the deal. In any event, there are pictures from Mom’s birthday, Sweet Sweet and I at the Texas State Fair and Thanksgiving.

    At Saralyn’s to celebrate Mom’s B-Day:







    Sweet Sweet and I take a ride on the ferris wheel:













    I took hardly any pictures of Thanksgiving, but did snap these photos of Hogan and Thea:





    The next day we headed down to the FC Cabin and for those of you looking to rent, two bedrooms were added as well as an updated kitchen:



    Sweet Sweet and I:



    Sweet Sweet and Elam:



    The setting sun in the woods:



    Elam takes a dump:



    Sweet Sweet in the kitchen:



    Randy and Sweet Sweet:



    Justin, Ashley, Randy, Elam, Sweet Sweet and myself:



  • Colorado Fly Fishing

    I’m not sure, but I think this was a once in a lifetime trip and it was incredibly hectic and I felt like we were on the road way too much, but damn it was worth it. Last Wednesday night, Brandon and I drove to Lubbock to knock out half of the trip, and spent the night with Matty. The next morning the three of us drove to Amarillo to pick up Justin, who had to delay his trip in order to finish out a bid. From there, the four of us drove to Trinidad, Colorado where we met up with Lee and Clayton, who had spearheaded this trip.

    We went to Wal-Mart, picked up our fishing licenses and we were off to the local lake in Trinidad.







    Matty waiting for the fish to arrive.



    No High Life, and we had to settle for Yellowbellies.



    The clouds finally break.



    Matty and Brandon:



    Fish was caught and we moved on to Lee’s house where we fried up some fish and potatoes. The next morning (Friday morning) we got up fairly early and made our way to the San Luis Valley. We hooked up with our guides, Spencer and David, who worked for an outfit called Solitary Angler and made our way out to some property that was owned by Van Beachum, who owned the fishing spot.



    You’ll note that this was truly a valley and the land leading up to the Calabra River was more marshy than anything else.





    We split into groups and I’m with Brandon and Justin. Here’s Brandon and Dave.



    Justin with a freaking awesome back-cast, follow through and good sized trout.







    Here’s your very own PDB (backpack was necessary to carry camera).







    You might say that this was perfect.



    Justin catches another trout and I have my camera handy.







    We finish up fishing and we then head to a place that Lee suggested, which is a public land area near a small lake where we can camp overnight for free. The only problem was that the afternoon mountain ran shower happened until about 7:30 that night and which made putting up the tent more difficult. We got it done and needless to say, when you’re in Colorado, it’s pretty awesome.









    The next morning, after a long night of Matty snoring (which he can’t help) Lee, Justin and myself get up for some breakfast in town, we clean up camp and we head to the next fishing spot which was some ranch (I think it was the Blanco Ranch?), which was 256 square miles of pristine Colorado countryside and mountains. The story goes that the ranch was formerly owned by Steve Forbes. The drive to our fishing spot was pretty spectacular and I’m pretty sure that who ever owned the ranch owned the mountain too.







    Want to see a guy who had not had a shower in four days?



    Now this fishing site was completely different. This was your mountain stream and the fish were going to be smaller.





    If you can just imagine miles of this type of scenery.



    Here’s Matty.



    And Brandon.



    I’m sorry that I never got photos of Lee and Clayton fishing, but here’s the entire group. In order, Brandon, myself, Matty, Clayton, Lee and Justin.







    Again, this was maybe one of the best trips ever. I had a ton of fun and I’m pretty sure I’m hooked (no pun intended) on fly fishing.

  • Fishing in Surfside

    It’s been a while, but I went fishing with Randy, Justin, Clay, Francis, Brandon and Donny. Lots of pictures and lots of fishing. Justin, Brandon and myself drove down, while the rest of the group (sans Donny) drove down first. We arrived at our beach house and it was pretty danged nice:





    That night, there was a thunderstorm on its way:



    Justin and Brandon (camera is foggy due to the humidity);



    Donny and Donny and Brandon:





    Someone caught a shark:



    Randy:



    Justin’s got something on the line:



    Me:



    Clay:



    Brandon with a beautiful cast:



    On our first stop was near an old oil rig and caught our limit of Kingfish. No pictures of the actual fish because I was actually fishing. Proof is later.

    Donny has something on the line:



    Clay gets in on the action:



    Someone is in to this:



    Randy with a Red Snapper (which was pretty par for the course in terms of size):



    Randy with a Mahi Mahi:





    After it was all said and done, this was the fish. Yep, a ton of fish:





    Me, Justin, Randy, Donny, Brandon and Clay:



    The next day, Brandon, Justin and myself (mainly the other two) cooked up a freaking awesome shrimp boil:





    Later in the day, we fished from the beach, and just for memories sake, this was our beach house:



    Waiting for a bite:



    Me:





    Randy, Francis, Donny, Brandon, Justin and Clay:



    And I replace Donny, but I’m shirtless:



    Pretty nice sunset that evening: