Adoption Update

Well, it's been one month since our dossier was sent to Ethiopia. This month has gone by very quickly, thanks to lots of projects and events that have kept us busy. We have submitted our names to our agency's unofficial waiting list and we are happy to report that we're not at the bottom of the list anymore! So even though we haven't really moved-up on the list, it looks as though we have because there are names below ours. Again, we don't want to wish time away but we're really excited to see how the year ahead of us unfolds and remain hopeful that maybe, just maybe, we'll receive our referral by the end of the year.

In the meantime, we've begun looking at vehicles and talking through our options. We each leased a car back in our swingin' single days and now our leases are on the verge of ending. We have decided to become a one car family for the summer, when I (Wendi) turn in my car at the end of May. We'll use Mark's car and his motorcycle for the summer. And during that time, we'll be researching and test driving to see what our best option will be. If anybody has thoughts or words of wisdom on the type of vehicle we should look into, we'd be glad to hear from you! We know that we'll eventually get a small pick-up truck for Mark. But we're debating cars vs. mini-vans vs. a small, hybrid SUV. We're also thinking about, how much room do we really need when we have a baby or two in the next few years; what kind of vehicle is easy to get kids into and out of; and can we be 'green' and find everything we're looking for in a hybrid vehicle. So those are some of our thoughts on cars. Right now, we're most excited about saving money by using just one car this summer!

I also happened across a child care website today and was shocked at day care rates for infants -- WOW! That's something else that we'll be researching and exploring in the coming months. We're so glad to have some flexibility with both of our jobs but we know that we'll also need to find child care. So much to think about!! But it's very energizing and exciting to look forward to.

So that's our adoption update for now. We've got a very busy weekend ahead of us ... we're photographing several hundred little dancers prior to their recital rehearsal on Saturday morning, photographing a prom for Mark's alma mater -- Lewis Cass high school -- on Saturday night, and then flipping pancakes for several hundred students at Harrison Hall on Sunday evening prior to the start of final exams week. Whew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Major Restaurant

We had heard from several people about a second Ethiopian restaurant in Indianapolis, Major Restaurant. Major is the last name of the owner. (Note to fans of the movie "A Christmas Story" -- when Mark and I hear the name Major Restaurant, we also hear the voice of the Dad from the movie dramatically saying "it's a major award" when he's notified that he's won the "frageelay" leg lamp -- but I digress ...)

On Sunday, Mark and I traveled down to Indy to meet our friends Brian and Deanna for lunch at Major Restaurant. It's definitely off the beaten path but not too difficult to find because it's near the intersection of I-465 and US 40. But we were glad to have directions with us. It's a little bit bigger and brighter than Abyssinia. And the food was wonderful!! Here's a photo of our platter -- a sample meal with three meat dishes, six different vegetable dishes and tons of injera.



After we finished eating our meal, our server asked us if we wanted to have some coffee. She roasted the coffee beans in the back but brought them to us when they were still sizzling hot so that we could smell them roasting. Then she placed the coffee beans on this mat to cool before she ground them to make the coffee.


Then she returned with a full coffee service, including popcorn and incense for us to burn. It all smelled wonderful! The coffee was very smooth though we think it had the strength of espresso. Thankfully, it was served in tiny cups. We had a great time catching up with Brian and Deanna and it was so fun to find another Ethiopian restaurant in Indy.

Another Home Improvement Project

We crossed more projects off our list this weekend -- the weather was just perfect for working outside! Back in December, you may recall that someone ran over our mailbox and one of our bushes at the end of the driveway. Well, the bush wasn't recovering very well so we decided to cut it down and put it out of its misery. In fact, due to our (compulsive) need for things to be symmetrical, we cut down both bushes at the end of the driveway and replaced them with some potted flowers. Thank goodness for Mark's 'Saws-All'! I don't know if that's how you spell it but it's a magical tool that can cut through just about anything. (Please note that I am not intentionally trying to sound like Billy Mays.) We planted grass seed too, hoping to fill in where the bushes once stood, may they rest in peace.

If you look closely in the above photo, you'll see that the grass is really growing in by the sidewalk and around the trees! Especially if you stand at the end of the driveway by the road, there's a kind of optical illusion that occurs that makes it look as though the grass has completely grown in, even though it hasn't. But it gives us hope that it WILL happen!

And here's a close-up of the potted flowers and the new lights we put on the three light posts. It was driving us crazy (that need for symmetry thing again!) that the lights on top of the poles didn't match. But now they do! (please don't judge us ....)

Bird Watching

We love all of the many birds who frequent our backyard! We love that you can sometimes hear woodpeckers in the trees and that we see birds that we have to look-up in our Indiana bird book because we don't easily recognize them. And we don't mind having to regularly fill the bird feeders to enjoy the simple pleasure of bird watching.

Here are a few photos from our Saturday morning bird watching. Do you remember that game from Sesame Street, "which one here is not like the others?" These photos make me think of that game ... so grab the kids and play along, courtesy of the Ailor's backyard.

Just Another Post Titled 'This & That'

Mark and I have both been really busy at work these last few weeks. We've both worked extra hours and have been wondering how different our lives will be a year from now. Hopefully, Baby Ailor will be home with us within the next year. Or we could be on the verge of traveling to Ethiopia. Or we could still be waiting. Obviously, we're hoping to be a family of three! And if so, I know that our priorities and schedules will shift so that Baby Ailor will be our first and last and probably every thought of the day! People keep telling us how much our lives are going to change and honestly, I think both of us are ready for that change. Bring it on, we say! Yet we're trying not to wish time away and to enjoy our last months as a family of two. So in that spirit, here are a few photos of things we've taken time to stop and enjoy recently.

Everyone knows how much Mark loves to cook. He likes the freedom in cooking as opposed to the science of baking. When Mark became a member of my family, he was introduced to many Lancaster County/Amish recipes. One of them is Amish Vanilla Pie. My Mom taught Mark how to bake this deliciously gooey treat but he has a funny story about how she gave him the recipe but when they made it together, she didn't follow the recipe at all! Anyway, Mark made an Amish Vanilla Pie earlier this week ... a little 'baking therapy' after a busy weekend. Here's a photo of the last slice:

I love spring time at Purdue! They turned on the fountain outside of my building last Thursday. It's a great place to sit and eat lunch. And in the summer time, many families bring their kids to the fountain to cool off ... we like to joke that it's the public pool on campus! And I just love all of the blooming trees right now, too. I'll try to take a few photos of the red bud trees across the street from our house this weekend ... they are gorgeous!

Tonight, Mark had a photography job with Purdue's Biomedical Engineering seniors. I had dinner with my Faculty Fellow floor and our buddy floor from the men's side of Harrison Hall. We had a semester birthday party to celebrate all those who have a birthday in the spring semester. Here's a photo with some of the first students who came for the dinner. It was a classic college student dinner -- pizza and cake.

It is one year ago today that Mark and I had settlement on our house. The first thing we did was to have a picnic in the sun room. The second thing we did was to paint the dining room. We can't believe it's been a full year! We have since painted nearly every room in the house. All but two, actually -- the laundry room and our bathroom. Anyway, to celebrate our first year in our home, we took a nice evening walk around the neighborhood. We just love all of the natural beauty here. We also wanted a closer look at the first goslings of the season on the ponds ... seven little geese with two very protective parents. We also saw Harry the blue heron who frequents the ponds. It was a beautiful evening for a walk.

Easter Weekend

Easter weekend started on Thursday for us when our youngest niece, Emily, came to spend a few days of her spring break with me and Mark. Emily is doing photography in 4-H so she wanted to have the help of her uncle. On Thursday night, we painted Easter eggs. It was so much fun! Our plan was to take the eggs to Mark's parent's house for our great nieces' egg hunt on Sunday.

Here's Mark and Emily with our first few eggs. We had lots of fun mixing colors together.


And here's Emily with our finished eggs -- the colors were beautiful!



Emily and I made a stop at Great Harvest Bread Company on Saturday morning. We were lucky enough to get one of the last Honey Bunnies. Poor bunny ... he was delicious! His tail and ears were the first to go.

Here is our youngest great-niece, Lily. She is 16 months old. It took her about 3 eggs to catch-on to the concept of hunting eggs. It took her less time to eat the candy inside some of the eggs after the first one opened and she discovered what was inside.

And here is Braylee. She is 20 months old. It only took her finding two eggs before she was running around the yard finding eggs, as evidenced by her full bucket!

After the egg hunt we went back inside for a fun show ... Mark's Mom loves to sing songs with her great-granddaughters. Favorites include "Do your ears hang low," "I'm a little tea pot," and I believe the pictures shows them singing the "Eensy weensy spider." Too cute!

Had to share this photo 'cause Lily and I just match too well! I loved the girls cute little Easter dresses.

The weekend also included a trip to North Manchester on what we dubbed, Nostalgia Tour 2009. I've been wanting to go to church at the Manchester Church of the Brethren for several months now. Everytime we thought it would work out, something came up. After we dropped off Emily at her home on Saturday, Mark and I returned to North Manchester to meet our friends the Osborne's for dinner. It was fun to visit with them and to hear about their trip to Nicaragua back in January. We hope that Mark might be able to travel with Jeff and his Manchester College medical practicum some day in the next few years. We were also finally able to visit KenapochoMocha, the coffee shop that our friends the Chinworth's started last year. Great coffee and tea in a beautifully restored Victorian home. Loved it! Wish it had been open when I lived in North Manchester.

Perhaps the funniest part of our trip was returning to The Treeway Inn, a small motel at the edge of town where we (and many of our family and friends) stayed for our wedding. It's kind of a retro hotel and when we stayed there on our wedding night, we didn't even have hot water! It's something we laugh about now and was a fun walk down memory lane. After attending church on Sunday and seeing so many of our friends, we headed off to Peru to have Easter lunch with Mark's family. We also celebrated his Mom's birthday. It was another fun weekend that went by too quickly!

This, That & a Black Tie Dinner

Let me just start by saying that today is a day for the ducks! It has been pouring most of the day here and we've gotten soaked more than once today, just going from the car to the grocery store, etc. Yuck! But we did have a nice morning regardless. We met our friends Chris and Brian and Sean at The Trails for Sunday brunch. Yummy!

Our anniversary was on Tuesday and Mark sent me these GORGEOUS roses! They still look beautiful nearly a week later. The two white roses symbolize our two year anniversary. Isn't he sweet and thoughtful??

On Saturday night, we attended the annual Hospitality and Toursim Management department's Black Tie Dinner at the Purdue Memorial Union. Each year, the students from this department hold this dinner as a fundraiser to raise money to travel to professional development events. As a staff member in the College, Mark and I have been able to attend this FABULOUS dinner each of my three years at Purdue (a perk of the job). This is a photo of the dessert. It's a five course meal and each is paired with a delicious wine. The servers surround your table and serve each dish synchronized. The students practice for months. It was a very fun and glamorous evening!

Here's a photo of Mark and I all dressed up for the dinner. Mark doesn't have a tux but unbeknownst to us, one of the theme colors for the dinner was a shade of purple so his lavendar tie fit right in!

The speaker for this year's dinner owns a restaurant equipment company and a mobile restaurant in Seattle (picture a silver airstream trailer that travels around the city!) The restaurant is called Skillet so each couple received an iron skillet at the end of the dinner. Of course, we had some fun with it, thus the photos below.

Our friends Josh and Christina gave it a try too! We're both happily married couples ... just playing around with the stereotypical wife hitting the husband with a frying pan motif. Notice that Josh doesn't look all that frightened of Christina's swing. : )

Christina and I all dressed up for the occasion. A running joke is how much Christina tilts her head in photos, as evidenced here:

So Mark and I had to try the classic "Christina pose." Of course, we just look dorky when we do it!

And finally, what better way to spend a rainy, yucky Sunday afternoon than to make lasagnas! Evidence that Wendi can help in the kitchen!

Probably the highlight of the week for us was following the blog of our friends the Whipple's. They arrived home from Ethiopia last night with their adorable little boy, Isaac. Go here to read more about their trip and to see photos of sweet little Isaac. Can't wait to meet him!

That's it from the Ailors. We're gearing up for a very busy month ahead of us. This week our niece Emily will be staying with us for a few days during her spring break. She and Mark will be working on her 4H photography project. We're going to celebrate Easter in North Manchester for church and then with Mark's family afterwards. I've got lots of events at work and Mark is preparing to photograph a prom, 300 little dancers at a local community center and getting ready to welcome the Lafayette Jeff High School seniors this summer. Lots of fun times ahead!