barbie

I played with barbie as a child. I played barbie longer than socially acceptable. I never had any 'special' barbies, but I knew they were out there. A teacher, doctor, cheerleader, vet, rock star, you name it there is a barbie that does it. Turns out even with all those career path she had time to adopt a baby from China. Yep it's true...adoption barbie! It makes me laugh.

library visit

Random...

If your looking for books about pregnancy there are a ton and they are all near the parenting books. If looking for books about infertility your in luck they are in the same section. A whole row of books dedicated to baby making, what to do if you can't make that baby, and what to do with the baby once it arrives. Lovely. Forgetting that adoption books are not located in that area I went poking around today. Getting frustrated I turned to the electronic catalog. Found my little shelf of books a few rows over. I was a bit surprised to notice that before the adoption section are books on caring for aging parents, to the right are books about dealing with pornography struggles, and to the left are books about joining the air force. I think I am going to slowly move the adoption books over to the parenting row.

Ity Bity Yurt

I've yet to travel to Kazakhstan, but I do have a few things from the country. Back in college I was involved with Campus Crusade for Christ. Crusade sent students on short term, mid term, and summer mission projects. I always went to Panama City Beach Florida for spring break. Nothing like telling drunk people on the beach about Jesus. I mean really they have no excuse to get up and go anywhere. Anyway, I knew this kid named Rich. Rich studied biology at Harvard and traveled to Kazakhstan a few times. One time when he returned he invited people to look at photos and then he gave out a few trinkets. I picked out this little yurt and a few pictures he brought back. Once we decided to adopt from Kazakhstan I went searching around the house for this little yurt, now it lives on our mantel.

I got an e-mail from Michelle today (home study caseworker) she was excited that our FBI checks came back. When she was getting ready to copy them and send them to us she noticed that both FBI checks were mine....oops. Michelle says they do that often. Well, that's not an excuse. If they do it often they should fix the procedure. Whatever, the home study should be done in about a week. Then we can move on to the next step.

adoption education

I have successfully read three adoption books and written three book reports. That equals three hours of education. However, it took much longer than three hours to complete. Annoyed by how long it was taking me I decided to sign up for an online course that said it was worth one hour and cost $20. The course was called "effect of institutionalization." I began reading through the text and clicking through the pages, before I knew it (20 minutes) it was quiz time. The "quiz" consisted of five questions I could have answered without reading the text. They say they will e-mail me a certificate saying I completed the course. That's it. What? If only these quizzes were free like the books I took out of the library.

Four hours down six to go, for me. For Jim three hours down and seven to go.

What I have read

The Connected Child

Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew

The Adoption Decision -I would highly recommend this even to people who are not adopting, very informative and easy to read.

Currently on my night stand

Attaching in Adoption

adoption education

Our homestudy is in the process of being written by our social worker here in Nebraska. It's a 10ish page paper about us. While she writes that and we wait for our fingerprints to go through Jim and I have to complete 10 hours each of adoption education. Believe me we are not complaining about this. We need adoption education. There are two basic options.
1. Read an adoption related book and write a summary of it.
2. Take an online class and print the certificate.
Online courses are self explanatory. It just tells you how many hours it is worth, but what about a book. I e-mail our girl Maeven from adoption ark to ask. Turns out each book + summary is worth 1 hour of education. I'm a fast reader....but not that fast. I feel a bit of pressure because our homestudy can't be finalized until we do this.

Why am I writing? I need to go read.

Pressed Chicken & Mozzarella Sandwiches

I don't have a sandwich press. I have a frying pan and a heavy pot, it works well enough.

Ingredients

-roasted chicken breasts, thinly sliced
-store bought or homemade pesto
-jar of roasted red peppers
-sliced mozzarella
-your bread of choice, I choose ciabatta bread because it is so yummy

Directions

1.Roast your chicken
2.Slice the bread
3.Put all the stuff on the bread

Putting the sliced cheese on each piece of bread then putting the pesto, pepper, and chicken in the middle will help the sandwich seal when cooked.

Heat a large skillet with olive oil. Put the sandwich in and put something heavy on top of the sandwich. Cook for a bit then flip and repeat. Put the sandwich in the over @ 350 while you make the other sandwiches.

Buttermilk Chicken Caesar Salad

I eat plenty of fruits and vegetables. But, salad no. I hardly ever get the 'man I need a great big salad feeling' Tonight Jim got that feeling. I tried to persuade him with other delicious options, but his mind was made up. Salad it is.

Here is a Martha Stewart recipe for Buttermilk Chicken Caesar Salad

***Disclaimer***
This is not a typical caesar salad. No oil. No little salty fishies.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermik
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, grated or pressed
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
Couple slices of whatever bread you have
Olive oil
1/4 cup mayo
2 medium heads of romaine lettuce, cut into pieces

CHICKEN
1.Put the chicken in a ziploc bag and pound it so it's a bit flatter.
2.In a medium bowl combine the buttermilk, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, and parmesan.
3.Add all BUT 3/4 cup of the mixture to the chicken.
4. Refrigerate the chicken for at least 15 minutes up to 1 day.

SALAD DRESSING
1. Put the reserved 3/4 cup buttermilk mixture in a small bowl.
2. Whisk in 1/4 cup mayo and add a bit more salt and pepper.
3. Refrigerate until you need it.

CROUTONS -of course you could buy croutons, but where is the fun in that???
1. Heat up your broiler.
2. Lay the bread out on a baking pan
3. Brush the bread on both sides with olive oil
4. Broil for 3-4 minutes on both sides...keep a close eye on it
5. Cut the bread up into crouton sized pieces

FINISH THE CHICKEN
1. Heat the broiler.
2. Transfer the chicken to a baking pan and discard the marinade.
3. Broil for about 15 minutes
4. Let the chicken set for about 5 minutes
5. Slice thin

When your ready to eat toss it all together and enjoy.