Autumn in Spokane

Steve took the photo of this tree in our backyard about three days ago. Today, there are very few leaves left on the tree...but we've got a heck of a bunch of leaves covering our back deck. Call in the leafblowers!!!

There hasn't been a lot of interesting news to report. My parents came to Spokane for a visit about 10 days ago, which was nice. It was a quick trip, but we had a chance to show them our new place, and got in a visit to the resort in Coeur d'Alene for lunch. We're looking forward to a visit from Steve's mom over Thanksgiving.

The weather has been all over the map the past month - from 70 & 80 degree highs, to 18 degree lows...typical fall weather I guess...especially in this part of the state. Not nearly as much rain as Seattle and western Washington. Actually, Spokane reminds me quite a bit of Denver in terms of weather. I like it.

Downtown, they opened the outdoor ice rink this week. Seems a little early to me, but I guess I need to suck it up and realize that winter IS coming! (Hopefully it just won't bring the record six feet of snow we saw last year). I don't mind if it's feezing cold - but snow is a pain in the butt. Especially in such large amounts. Although this winter will mark the FIRST winter that I've ever had a garage for my car! WHOO HOO. Hallelujah! Yes, that's right folks, I lived in Ellensburg for 5 years, and Iowa and Colorado for 13 years, and just went thru Spokane's worst winter in 50 years...all without a garage. Meaning, I've had the pleasure of scraping the windows and/or scooping off snow for TWENTY years now...(and people wonder why I need a chiropractor?) I am so excited about parking my car in the garage, that I *almost* WANT it to snow, just so I can feel the pleasure of backing my clean, warm car out of the garage... :)

In other news, Steve's on-air shift is moving from morning drive to afternoon drive this week. No more 4 a.m. wake-up calls! This is exciting news for me, but more-so for Steve. He did an amazing job with his morning show over the past year, bringing it from #11 to #3 in the ratings (YAY!)...but waking up at 4 o'clock every morning gets old pretty fast. Especially living this far north, where in the winter, it stays dark until 7:30 am. and starts getting dark again around 4 p.m. Now he will actually be able to go to work during the light of day, and although he will have to stay a bit later (and still come home in the dark) at least he will be able to stay up a little later with me in the evenings.

In adoption news, our social worker finished writing our homestudy report this week, and has sent it to my agency for review. Fingers crossed for a speedy and seamless review, so we can move forward with getting our USCIS (immigration) approval. That process will probably take another several weeks - especially with the holidays coming up - but I'm trying to keep a positive outlook. My goal is to start 2010 with all the required paperwork updated and in place.