Randman's World

One year ago today (August 1), Charlie became a member of our family. It was on this day that our adoption became finalized, after several delays through the courts. But due to the powerful prayers and good thoughts of our friends and families, the court granted our petition to have Charlie join our family. There has not been one regret since that day.

Just as a reminder, here are some photos from that day, one year ago!

The new proud parents in the courtroom, moments after the judge rendered her decision and finalized the adoption. Needless to say, we were relieved (after 2 other failed court hearings).

After we scrambled to get documents from government offices, we picked Charlie up from the children's home later that afternoon, and headed back to the hotel. He was a bit freaked, but was good as gold.

Charlie and his new mommy, asleep in the bed at the Korvet Hotel.

This has been a hectic day for such a little guy!

It's been a wonderful year. A year of discovery, wonder, laughter, lack of sleep, worry, kisses, singing, jumping, chasing, splashing, and . . . a year of being a family.

We just received an email from Vika, our translator during our adoption of Charlie. She was such an important part of our adoption. Our facilitator didn't speak english, so Vika was our voice during all the proceedings, trials and tribulations. Plus, she's such a sweet and generous young lady. We really felt like she became a member of our family.

Vika just let us know that she is coming to the United States as a Fulbright Scholar! She doesn't now yet where she will be studying (and apparently, she's getting a bit anxious to know).

We're so happy for you, Vika. This couldn't happen to a nicer person!

KCTV5 traffic reporter Allie Francis is in deep you know what. Seems she, along with several others, alledgedly set up a phony cleaning company and billed Associated Wholesale Grocers for cleaning that never occured, and supplies that were never received. They alledgedly had an inside man working at AWG who signed off on the invoices. Total? $650,000.00. OUCH! They've been indicted by a federal grand jury.

Because of my position, I just love it when fraud is found. This case was just a bit more fun.

Seems my previous post about Kansas City wasting money was prophetic. Now, there are dueling "Riverfront Park" projects being proposed. And, no one knows where the money will come from.

First, is Berkley Riverfront Park. You know, that stretch of grass, sidewalk, and a couple of trees along the river between Isle of Capri and the Heart of America bridge. Cost $5 million in 1998. Yeah, well we're going to scrap that one. Now, the Port Authority is proposing spending $50 million dollars to redo that area, with an amphitheater, "great lawn", yada yada yada. $50 million dollars.

Do We Actually Have Mountain Lions In Our City Parks??????????????

"Go on Timmy, go throw some rocks in the water. That's a good boy! Timmy? Timmy? Where's Timmy?"

Have A Nice Day! You hear it daily. I heard it twice going through McDonald’s drive-thru this morning. Then once at lunch, and once again in line at Target: “Have A Nice Day”

Have A Nice Day! Seems more like a command, doesn’t it. “Have a nice day”. Might as well say, “Despite anything else you want, I am ordering you to have a nice day”. To paraphrase George Carlin, maybe I don’t want to have a nice day. Maybe I’ve had 162 nice days in a row. Maybe I’m ready for a crappy day.

Wouldn’t it be more appropriate for the drive thru person to say, “I hope you have a nice day”. No command. No forcing me to do anything. Just a friendly explanation of their wish for my happiness. That would be better. They can hope I have a nice day, but if I have a crappy day, their fine with that, too.

And then, there’s “You have a good one!”. One what? Day? Life? Cold Beer? Or, is it an observation on their part. “You have a good one!” Often my answer is, “Yes, I do. Thanks for noticing”.

I put this together for a Russian adoption board, and thought I would share it with everyone. It's truly amazing to see how much the children change when they get home and receive some love. Charlie is no exception.

What It Is?

This week, Monkeys With Handgrenades is this weekend. A great sketch comedy show, high energy, with lots of laughs. And, a farewell to Andi Woody, as she does her final show before moving on to train with Second City!

What It Was?

Hard to believe that it's now been a year since my first trip to Russia, where I met and fell in love with a little guy name Charlie, who would change our lives forever. This time last year, I was over the jet lag, and was working furiously to get his room ready, get furniture assembled, get the home baby proofed, and just in general, get ready for a one year old invader. What a wild three weeks that was.

His "Gotcha Day" (the day his adoption was final) is August 1st!

What It Shall Be!

2 months until our trip to Walt Disney World! º0º
A probable business trip to the Orlando area prior to that. Normally, cool. But now, not so cool to be away from my family that long.
Much more time spent with Charlie and Mommy.

Charlie has a new favorite book.


Charlie's favorite part is when the book says, "And when the moon is on the rise, they all go up . . .

TURN THE PAGE

to exercise".

Charlie gets so excited on the page before, and he tries to say "To Exercise", but it comes out "Da da da da".

The Space Shuttle returned to orbit yesterday. Most headlines talked about how launching on the 4th of July was a great statement, a wonderful tribute to America, a symbol of our greatness.

Then, it hit me. Every missle fired into the air on the 4th of July does the same thing.

It explodes.

Fortunately, everything went well, and we are back in space. Just one of those "didn't think it through" moments of journalism.

We've talked about it for about the last year and a half. We've looked for about the last 8 months. We've studied, we've tested, we've discussed, but finally, on Saturday, we pulled the trigger.

We've joined the Tempur-Pedic Revolution.

We bought a King Sized Tempur-Pedic Classic mattress and foundation.

We had looked before, but never had a place where we could compare conventional mattresses, the "Sleep Number Bed" and the Tempur-Pedic. We ended up going to Mattress Firm, who sells all three beds.

First, we tried the conventional mattresses. It became an episode of "The Three Bears", with one mattress being too soft, one being two hard. Finally, we found a Sealy mattress both of us liked. Of course, it wasn't cheap. We never seem to luck out like that. But, it felt pretty good.

Then, we tried the Sleep Number bed. We found my sleep number, but as I was lying there, adjusting, moving around, the bed really felt like an air mattress. It wasn't anything to write home about, and absolutely not worth the money.

So, we moved over to the Tempur-Pedic mattresses. I had been looking at these for some time, ordering the Tempur-Pedic information kit, studying on line. Tempur-Pedic was really marketing to me as well, sending me more and better deals in the mail.

Mattress Firm had the "Classic Bed" on sale for $300.00 off. We tried it, and both of us liked it. I kept going back and forth between it and the conventional mattress, just to make sure. The Tempur-Pedic was only a couple hundred dollars more than the conventional bed we liked, and had a longer warranty. We wanted to go discuss it before making a decision.

At dinner, we decided to go ahead and get the bed. Being the family "dicker-er", I knew that I wanted some free stuff for the amount of money they were asking, especially after the sales person said that Tempur-Pedic price locks amongst stores, and she couldn't move the price.

So, I headed back after dinner. Our salesperson wasn't there, but her "best friend" was. Obviously, she wasn't concerned with protecting her "best friends" commission (or the corporate price lock), as she dropped the price immediately. Smelling blood in the water, I went in for the kill. While trying out the bed, Kim had tried a Tempur-Pedic neck pillow. She loved it. One of the mail promo pieces I had from Tempur-Pedic offered a free neck pillow, so I would have to have one if I was going to buy (a $99.00 value). Ok. Then, of course, I'm not going to pay for delivery. Ok, free delivery (a $59.00 value). And, we can do better on the price.

I ended up getting everything I wanted for the newly dropped price, with tax included in that price, and next day delivery, plus 18 month no interest.

So, Sunday, we got the bed, pillow, etc. But, Kim wasn't happy, because they had given us a medium size neck pillow, and she really wanted a larger one. So, back to the store with the unopened pillow box. A quick round of "I've Got A Deal" later, and I've got a Queen Large Pillow (a $140.00 value) in exchange for the Medium pillow.

The verdict after our first night sleeping? The jury is still out. We both found the bed comfortable, but there were parts of our backs that were not used to being supported in our sleep. This caused some slight aches and pains in those areas. However, I'm sure that they will disappear as we continue to sleep in the bed. I'm really looking forward to some pain free sleeping in the future.

FYI, Charlie had voted for the conventional mattress, as it was much better for bouncing. He had previously eaten some of the Tempur material they sent us (while my back was turned), and thought it wasn't that tasty, so he voted for the Sealy mattress. Unfortunately, he lost out, and will have to settle for bouncing on the Tempur bed, or in his bounce house.