TGIF

I am so glad it's Friday. I've been so busy this past week, I'm feeling frazzled...I'm looking forward to catching up on blogging and just hanging out at home!

Hmmmm....

RQ has posted a compilation of information gained from those who attended meetings during the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) recent visit to the U.S.

Check it out http://chinaadopttalk.com/2007/06/26/information-ccaa-meetings/

It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be...

Camping take 2

I know I totally blew it on my Memorial Day camping post. One day after posting my recap, I took it down because I thought I had written too many mean things about those I had camped with. Plus, my promise of documenting my Dutch oven cooking didn't really go over as planned (even though I rocked it!!).

It was decided early this morning that we are going camping this weekend. I'm only taking my new little Dutch oven and can't wait to break it in...

Enjoy your weekend, I'll be on the river somewhere cooking, fishing, reading, and relaxing!

33!

Holy moly! Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! I had no idea... :-)

We had a bit of a rain/windstorm Saturday and as a result, I think it knocked my home Internet out as I kept getting a big page error on Sunday. It still wasn’t up yesterday, so I didn’t log on at all! My brother called me to wish me Happy Birthday and as we were chatting, I said “I haven’t been online for TWO days!”, he said “well, sometimes you just need to take a break..it’s a good thing”.

I should have known Heather was up to something! I logged on to blogger first thing this morning at work and there were 14 comments to publish. Whoa! Heather left me a birthday greeting on her blog, sent a card in the mail, and sent everyone over to my blog to wish me a Happy Birthday! Thank you Heather and thanks again everyone for the fun birthday wishes!

So, what was I doing on my birthday instead of messing around on the Internet and/or working?

Well, on Sunday, the family all headed up to my mom’s house for a Birthday/Father’s Day bash. Yummy food, great presents, and the best ever…my little nephew Jackson, who had been practicing with Grandma and Grandma, singing Happy Birthday to me! It was the cutest thing ever! I wish wish wish I would have had my camera to catch a little video of it. Too cute!

Yesterday, I took the day off work. What can I say, I don’t like working on my birthday. So, I slept in until 7:30a.m. Sweet lord am I getting older or what? 7:30a.m.! I remember the day when sleeping in was until 12:00p.m….ahhhhh, oh well. I would imagine when little whipper snapper arrives, there will be no such thing as sleeping in. So, I’ll get what I can now. I made myself a cup of coffee, climbed back into bed, and lounged while watching Matt Lauer.

Then, my sister Lexi, nephew Thomas, and I trekked over to Spokane for a day of shopping and lunch. After, my good friend Shelby stopped by and dropped off a present. Guess what it was? A little something she had picked up at the ladybug tea auction, a cute red blanket and the adoption book, The Red Blanket. Awwwww!

Someone special made dinner and I opened more presents. He gave me a 10’ dutch oven, a carry case, two dutch oven cookbooks AND a candle! Now, I can make a main dish and dessert at the same time. Fantastic!

I wrapped up the evening with a scoop of my favorite ice cream and watched my summer addiction, Big Love on HBO.

Fantastic! So many fun phone calls and birthday wishes from friends, family AND cyber pals, a great weekend, a day off, and presents! I couldn’t have asked for a better day.

:-)

Happy Birthday John!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you....

One Year

Today marks one year of blogging, I can't believe I've stuck with it this long!

241 posts

8201 visitors

Thank you for stopping by and reading my ramblings! ;-)

Auntie's Garden

Backing up

I'm out of my monthly adoption funk (see previous post). I want to thank you for all of your kind and supportive comments. A special thanks to Gayle and Marilyn from work...our impromptu visits mean so much. You really do lift my spirits.

I wonder, will I feel like this every month during referral time? I hope not. I am staying off the yahoo boards. So many people, so many rumors, so many different perspectives, and so much speculation. It's just too overwhelming to think about all the time. We'll see if it works....

Alrighty, backing up. Thursday (as in almost a week ago) was my crappy day (as mentioned above). When I arrived home from work, there was a box on my front porch.

Talk about timing. Guess what was in it? Presents for my GIRL from my prezzie pal!

That's right! Heather, my not so secret pal, and I decided to drop out of our DTC yahoo group secret pal exchange. I could tell the yahoo group just wasn't a good fit for me and Heather thought the same thing...so we got to chatting (via email) and decided to create our own present exchange, now known as the Blogger Babe Gift Swap....and, as I call her, my prezzie pal. :-) We followed the same idea as the yahoo group secret pal exchange in that we have themes, a set dollar limit, mail dates, etc. What a great way to help pass the time during this extended wait!

Our first theme was bed time. Inside the box were so many fun presents! I found a green blanket, which matches my nursery room colors perfectly, and a teddy bear HAND MADE by Heather. How cool is that? In addition, cute little pj's, a onesie, a book, and two cards - one for me and one for my girl. Thank you thank you thank you Heather. Those who follow Heather's blog know she has been having a terrible time dealing with pinched nerves, carpel tunnel, numb arms & hands, and much much pain! To know that you made these gifts, while dealing with all of that... I am truly touched. Plus, the box arrived on the one day when I needed it the most. How wonderful. THANK YOU!

Presents!

Have I mentioned that the previous weekend I spent most, if not all, of my time weeding my front flower bed? Fun. Yeah, not so much. It gets better though. This past Saturday, my someone special, his friend, and I well not so much me, I was more of an assistant finished the flower bed. I'll let the pictures tell the story (captions under the photo).

Before

Man! I should have taken a picture BEFORE I did all the weeding. This is taken after all the weeding. Seriously, it was BAD. It looked like grassy prairie. I had to buy a special weeding tool to clean that sucker out. I worked my rear off to "get it ready" for planting and bark.

The other view...BEFORE

AFTER

New edging, plants and bark. The wine barrel still needs to be leveled and I would like to plant some herbs in it, but the area doesn't get too much sun...so we'll see. Someone special is also making a path from the grass to the wine barrel using some of the flat rocks left over from the old edging.

1....2.....3.....4......5......6!

6 month LID anniversary!

Happy Birthday Dad!

It's that time of the month...warning bummer post

Yay! Great news for everyone logged in between November 1st, 2005 and November 7, 2005. They became parents this week.

I on the other hand, am once again feeling very blue about this whole process. So far today I've read the following:

The wait is at 24 months
The wait will continue to increase and will reach 3 years
The wait is currently at 8 years
China is closing their adoption program

Perhaps I should stop trolling the internet looking for any bit of information I can...

I even emailed my agency today, asking what they thought. No response.

So much for the predictable, stable, China adoption process.

I wonder if I'll ever get to be a mom.

Auntie Sara

Yesterday was Tom’s 4 month check-up. For those of you who don’t know (I didn’t), the 4 month check-up includes 3 shots! Tom’s mom, my sis, doesn’t like to go alone with him on shot day and needed someone there for support. Tom’s Dad was working and Grandma was out of town…so guess who’s next in line?? That’s right! Auntie Sara!

Awwwwwwwwwww!! He is so freakin’ cute I can hardly stand it. At 4 months, he weighs in at a whopping 16.5 pounds and is in the 90th percentile. He's right on target developmentally and is very alert for his age (according to his NP). He cooed, smiled, kicked around, flirted, and even giggled for the nice lady. Then came the shots, Mom held his hands and I watched over her shoulder. Wham bam, one shot, two shots, three shots, and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

He only cried for a few seconds. His mom picked him up, he sniffled and all was good again. What a little trooper. By the time I got back to work, my sis had called to thank me for coming along and let me know that he was zonked out in his car seat.

7 random things about myself...

Kelli tagged me awhile back and I haven’t posted yet (what's new...I'm the worst blogger these days), but anyway here goes…

• I can’t compute math in my head. AT ALL. Not even the simple stuff. Give me a calculator and a pencil and it’s a whole different story. Otherwise, I’m secretly calculating using my fingers under the table. Did I really just admit that? My 3rd grade teacher taught me some weird trick of doing multiplication and addition on my fingers and I just never learned how to do it in my head I guess. Messed up.
  


• I will not share milk products with others. Something about it just grosses me out. My family gives me a hard time, except they think that I won’t share any food or drink. For the life of me I can’t figure out why after 32 years…they don’t get that it’s ONLY MILK PRODUCTS. Yea, I’m talkin’ to you family readers!
  


• I learned how to sign the pledge of allegiance in the 4th grade and I can still do it perfectly.
  


• I can also say the alphabet backwards - - fast and accurate! Wanna hear it?
  


• I love watching gymnastics, cheerleading and drill team competitions, and synchronized swimming. Stop laughing.
  


• I have very long fingers. For the piano players out there, I can reach an octave plus one key with no problem at all.
  


• I have visited the following states, plus Mexico, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland.
  
  
  create your own visited states map
  
  
  My mom says I've also been to Nebraska, Kansas, and Virginia...but I don't remember, I was a little whipper snapper then.

Am I supposed to tag someone? If so, I tag my brother... :-)

Swweeeeet!

I might have to squeeze into the ol' Miracle suit this weekend...