Most women have those moment – you know the ones – when you suddenly realize you are doing something or saying something exactly as your mother would. My mom is a compulsive list maker. She makes lists of her lists sometimes. She makes lists for packing, for cleaning, for shopping, for work tasks, for school tasks, for personal tasks, for errands…you name it and she’s made a list for it. She says it gives her satisfaction to cross off items…it makes her feel she has accomplished something. When I was a kid, I dreaded those lists because invariably there was one with my name at the top. During summer vacation, I would wake up to a fresh to-do list every morning. I hated that. The worst was mowing the lawn…have you ever heard the story of the time I got the riding mower stuck in the pine tree? No? Well that’s a post for another time.

Some how I’ve gotten the list maker gene from mom (I couldn’t inherit her size 8 body…oh no…I get the list maker thing and the lack of a butt from my dad…the universe certainly has a sense of humor). Today, I broke down the list of things we need to compile for our dossier into a more manageable set of tasks. I even put little check boxes by each one so I could check off the progress as we complete things. I then proceeded to make a second list of items to be completed after the dossier is complete. I made a list of things for Steve to do. Finally, I made a list of things I wanted to accomplish today. Mom would be proud.

But the bright note of the day is that I did accomplish several things and got to cross off a few steps. I got certified copies of our marriage certificate. Two of the homestudy agencies returned my calls and I decided which one to go with. I printed out the homestudy application and filled out the first 10 pages of it (it’s 34 pages total). I completed the child abuse clearance and criminal record check forms, bought the money orders for each, and they are in envelopes ready to go in the mail tomorrow. [I went to the bank to buy 4 $10 money orders. They wanted to charge me $5 per money order!?! I walked down one block and bought them at CVS for $0.69.] I also emailed the HR department at work to ask for my employment verification letter.