Ahoy there Mate

You better run...you can't hide...THE PIRATES ARE COMING!!

More Squishes

I FINALY got a squish from one of my family members--the one and only squish from my family!!!!

Thanks Jody! Is this one of Kayden's outfits?? I think that it might be...Kayden will be 1 in August so this is a very special squish from our dear daughter's cousin!

Dolls...

I wanted to send a BIG THANK YOU to my Aunt Helen who I just visited (you too Ted).

My mother and my aunt both collect porcelain dolls. Aunt Helen gave me two Chinese dolls. One is a numbered porcelain Cabbage Patch Kid...she is still in California and will come back with my mom next week--I didn't want to pack her in my suitcase and I had to many carry on.

Here is a picture of the second doll--this is from the International Festival of Toys and Tots collections. His name is Chan...isn't he beautiful? I'm going to go to the unfinished furniture store and get a corner hutch for the nursery and it will have her dolls in it.




My mother has the girl doll that goes with Chan and she is going to give me her when she gets back.

Thanks Aunt Helen!!

Thank you Secret Buddy

I have the best secret buddy!

I came back from vacation yesterday (my birthday) and had a package from our secret buddy. Take a look at the bootie--I love the colors. We got a mini tote bag, sippy cup, set of three bibs with the pouch, a very cute book, cat toys for Lucy and Cosmo and a K key chain (happy birthday to me!)

THANKS SECRET BUDDY!

Farmers Market and Hollywood

Yesterday we went to Farmers Market and Hollywood for the day. Farmers Market is kind of like Faneuil Hall with the multiple food courts and then there the small little shops mixed in between. So we stopped for lunch and then went shopping. Below are a couple of pictures of the market and one of Mom and Aunt Cindy.





We went to the American Girl store...what a place! They have an Asian American Girl, but she doesn't have any books to go with her yet...I'll have to keep watch and see if any books come out and then I'll get the doll for our little one. They had a hair dresser for the dolls and a hospital for the dolls...Here is a picture of the doll at the hairdresser:




We went to Grumman’s Chinese Theater and they were getting ready for a movie premier. They had a section set aside for the Press and a Blue Carpet covering the sidewalk so we couldn't see the hand and footprints of the stars. They also had the barriers up so that the common folk like us could get to close to the stars.

Grumman’s is right next to the Kodak Theater--it looks a lot smaller in person than when you see it on TV for the Emmy Award shows. Here are the pictures. The last one is of Aunt Cindy, Mom and Aunt Helen. The Kodak Theater has a large mall--so when you go up the stairs you can go straight into the theater or off to the mall and then you could see the Hollywood sign, but my camera didn't take a good picture of the sign...it was to far away.





I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to Boston. It's been a real nice visit, but I'm missing my family a lot. I can't wait to see you husband!!

Family Fun

Here are some pictures of the entire family at dinner. We went to a place called Logan's Steak House and you could throw peanut shells on the floor--my kind of place.



Front Row (left to right): Aaron, Aunt Helen, Baby Elie Grace, Ashley, William and Mom.

Second Row (left to right): Morgan (Aaron's girlfriend), Ted, Garrett, Andrew (Ashleys boyfriend) Stacey, Chuck, Taylor and Terry.

Here are a couple of other shots from that night:

Vacation Day Three

We just got back from my cousins house in Fresno. What....a.....long......ride..... we had about five hours in the car. I'm not good for long car trips...it should be fun on the 13 hour plane ride to China...sorry Michael...I'm working on my fidgeting.

I haven't seen my Cousin Chuck for 30 years and yes...I hate the fact that I can say that it's been 30 years since I've seen anyone!! I met his wife Stacy and his two boys, Aaron and William. What a nice family. My cousin Terry and her three children, Ashley, Garrett and Taylor and her very cute two year old granddaughter Ellie.

I have to tell everyone that Michael is an awesome dad already!!! My Cosmo girl hasn't been eating and I was very concerned about going away on vacation. Michael has had her to the vet, bought her five different kinds of food to see if she would eat something...gave her a bath after the vet because she wet herself..she get's all freaky when you put here in the carry cage...such a good dad!! I owe you big time Mr. Cormier.

The vet called him today and said that nothing was wrong with her blood work...so if she doesn't start eating by tomorrow, he had to take her back to the vet for x-rays to make sure she doesn't have any blockage. Stay tuned...hopefully it will not be anything serious.

Tomorrow...DISNEY LAND...what fun!

HOT...HOT...HOT...

Well...we made it! The flight from NH to CA was pretty uneventful. We got into Las Vegas about 45 minutes early so we tried our had at the slot machines and I even got mom to have a glass of wine...oh my...it's been a while since she had some wine and she was just too funny. Mom didn't think that they would let her on the plant for our connecting flight.

Aunt Helen and Ted picked us up at the airport. They live in the High Desert in a town called Victorville, CA. My goodness...I think that it is over 100 today...you can fry an egg on the sidewalk here!! It's very pretty, but, I'll take New England and our winters any day...layers are easier to work with then trying to stay cool.

We just came back from lunch--here is Aunt Helen and Ted. I MISS YOU MICHAEL!! I WISH YOU WERE HERE!!!



We are going to Fresno tomorrow to see my other cousins and their children...this will be fun...I've never met the kids and I haven't seen Chuck or Terry since I was a kid.

I'm going to try my hand with the movie camera tomorrow. Who knows, maybe I'll get some video posted.

VACATION....

Today is my last day of work!! Woo Hoo!! I'm going on VACATION.

Unfortunately, Michael is staying home because someone has to work and take care of the girls.

Cosmo hasn’t been right for the past couple of days and hasn’t been eating, but she looked better today and started to follow me around the house. Michael needs to keep a watchful eye on her just in case she needs to go to the VET. He is totally responsible for her well being this week and she needs to be alive and well when I get home or it’s going to get ugly!

Mom and I are going to California--I'm going for a week and mom is going for two. We have family out there so this will be a nice get-a-way...

Stay tuned for pictures or a possible movie!! I need to practice with posting my smile box movies for when we go to China.

Yeah...We got 3 more Squishes

We received three more squished for our 100 Good Wish Quilt. Two are from my Jan DTC group and one if from our good friends the Coopers...take a look we are up to 54 now--we are half way there to 100--I'M STILL WAITING FOR SQUISHES FROM MY VERY LARGE FAMILY--I HAVEN'T RECIEVED EVEN ONE YET FROM A FAMILY MEMBER ON MY SIDE OF THE FAMIL!!! (Are any of you feeling shamed yet??) :

BARRY...BARRY...BARRY...

I'm SO EXCITED!! Barry is back on the Road!! Whoo Hoo!!! I know...I know...a lot of people think that we are soft as grapes, BUT WE LOVE HIM!

My sister Cindy and I see Barry when ever he is in town and the last time we saw him was I think...two years ago...maybe three...and he announced that he was going to stop touring and just perform in Las Vegas.

Well, you can imagine my surprise when I got an e-mail today announcing that he is coming back to Boston!!

I bought the first two tickets that came up in my search (silly me) and we have floor seats in section G--these are the last floor seats before you hit the balcony. I just hope that we can see him!! Oh well--it's still BARRY!!

Happy Early Birthday to Me and Cindy!!! And you know what??? He really does write the songs that make the whole world sing!!

Yippee!!! Yahoo!! Barry's Back!!!!!!

So Cute...

I just couldn't resist! I've been looking for a table and chair set to put in the babies room. I went to the unfinished furniture store and saw nothing that I really liked.

Today is our five month anniversary with our LID so I decided to look on line for a table and chair set and look what I found...this goes perfectly with the rug that I bought two months ago!!

Waiting Milestone...

Yippee...it's five months and one day since we have been logged in with CCAA. I can't believe that it is mid-July already…boy is time flying. Let’s hope that we stay on this speedy course!! Just think…Christmas will be here before we know it…we can do this and we can stay positive.

So many changes!!

We have been making a lot of changes here at the house! It's a lot to take in and hopefully we will love the changes once we get used to them.

First we painted the house and the Michael felt that we had to much white and he wanted to add some color. So...I had the responsibility of picking out a color for the trim of the house. We went with a green because we have a fairly new green storm door.

The first green we picked was called Key Largo...I came home from work and freaked out and had the painter stop painting...the house looked like it belonged on the beach down in Key Largo!! So I had to pick another color that was two shades darker called Pinehurst...the trim is done and Michael doesn’t' like the color. I tried to get his opinion before we switched and he said that he wasn't good with color--he should have spoken up when he had the chance.

We now have a white house with green trim--it is growing on me--take a look:




The next thing we did was get three HUGE white fur trees. There is a tree company down the side street next to our house and I guess that they got sick of looking at our poor dead blue spruce that was a fire waiting to happen in our yard--here are a couple of pictures of our empty yard:






Now for the after photos:




I think that they will look great once they start to fill in and they will definatly look great at Christmas--we will have a lot of decorating to do this year!!

More Squishes...

We received more squishes:

Is This A Sign From Above?

Since my last post I have been doing a lot of soul searching and praying about weather or not to switch countries in the adoption process and the more that I think about it the more I know that we have to wait for China because this is where our daughter will be waiting for us to come and take her home.

It has been a heck of a couple of days! Last week I was out shopping for a ceiling fan for the baby’s room. All of a sudden I had this total feeling of calm that just came over me and in my minds eye I saw our TWO beautiful girls! You all know that we applied for twins if they became available, but twins are very rare and more than likely we will only receive one child. I can’t explain why two, but it just felt so right.

I got to thinking…they say that the wait is currently at 18-24 months.

We are now four months into our official wait. I really think that we have received a sign from above (you can call me crazy, but I believe it!!) that our daughters have recently been conceived.

Think about this…it’s nine months for the pregnancy, the Chinese Government requires that they try to find the parents for six months before the child is made paper ready for adoption—this adds up to a total 15 months, we already have four months behind us in our wait so that brings us up to 19 months…the amount of time that it take to make our children paper ready would be a month or three which brings you up to 22 months, we get our referral and can not travel for two months and that brings us right to 24 months.

You may think that I’m reaching, but it makes since to me and helps me to realize that she/they truly are real.

I think that their mother is very excited that she is pregnant and probably a little scared at the same time. I pray that she finds piece within herself and that she loves these babies like only a mother can. I pray that she doesn’t blame herself for what she will do once the babies are born and that she finds piece in knowing that these children will be ok and given the best chances in life that we can give them. I pray that she finds piece.

Our girls are coming!!

Newest Batch of Referrals

Ok--I've been at my rumor site and they are posting that the next batch of referrals has gone out and they (the CCAA) has referred up to 11/14/05. This is only one week from last month’s referrals. May referred up to 11/7/05.

They say November of 2005 is one of the largest months for referrals and they feel that the referral time may pick up after November is done--they are working on one week of dossiers for the entire month!!

Hopefully once they are done with November we will see a speed up. I have everything crossed for luck now.

OHGWQ

I started my book for my squishes. So far I have 40 square. I'm still waiting for some from my groups that should bring me up to 60 squares. I should have received them already so I don't think that I should count on those other 20 to come in.

I have my entire family (which is huge!!) that I'm still waiting on for squishes. My sisters and nieces said that they have them they just need to get them to me. We also have some family friends and work friends that have told me that they are on the way.

I went to Target today and bought a do it yourself album for my squishes with the samples of material for the quilt and I also included all of the post cards that we received from our postcard swap with the Jan 2007 DTC group. It looks good--I got some clear plastic sleeves in different sizes.

Tonight I laid out all of the squares that we have received to date to see how this quilt is going to look and I think that it's going to look great--I can't wait to get the other squares so that we can work on the layout and design.

Here are some pictures of what we have so far: