Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Secret Pal!!

I just had to take a minute to thank my Secret Pal again this Christmas morning! We opened Raven's Christmas gift this morning and it's the Calin doll! She is soooo cute! Thank you SO much! I can't wait till she gets here to see her playing with it!

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Holidays!

While I'm on a posting roll, I want to with everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday!

Nov/Dec Secret Pal Gift & Electric Collars

Thanks to my April2007DTC Secret Pal! She did a combo gift for Nov and Dec which I received earlier this week. There was a 3-pack of pink and white bodysuits, a package of plastic bowls, this great black iron candle holder with a pine scented candle (LOVE candles), a great card and Raven's very first Christmas present!!! We can't open the gift until Xmas, by orders of my secret pal! lol


She also included a gift for Yoshi! This adorable Chinese food take-out box squeaky toy. And in the background is Raven's gift under the tree already!





Let me tell you, Yoshi was VERY patient with me trying to get a picture of him with his gift!! If he loves anything more than squeaky toys it's posing for pictures!!! But this one was tough for him!! He humored me and let me take a decent picture. Then...

"Let's see if I can get the whole thing in my mouth!"


"Don't EVEN think about taking this away from me!"

Thank you Secret Pal!! I can't wait till Xmas to open Raven's gift!!

As a side note for all you dog lovers, you may notice from time to time Yoshi is wearing an electronic collar. Let me assure you, we never use this collar with the shock feature. When we first got it we did test it out it isn't so much of a shock as a vibration, so it isn't too bad, but we still don't use that feature. The feature we do use and does some in helpful is the "beep" part. You press a button on the remote and a very high pitched beep comes from the collar, not loud or anything. This usually will get him to at least pay attention. He is still young and still has his moments where it's hard to get his attention to make him stop doing something any other way, like chasing the cats (who will beat the you know what out of him if ever gets close enough to them!), chasing birds or squirrels, trying to make a run for it thru the front door, eating the sofa, tree, and anything else he can put in his mouth. So sometimes it's necessary to just catch his attention when he doesn't listen to "leave it", "no", "come", all things he does listen to if he is not focused on catching a kittie at the time! lol Anyway, I just happened to notice that some of the pictures have him with the collar on so I figured I'd let everyone know we only beep him. lol And usually I don't even put it on him, I just leave it by the stairs and if he chases the cats, I can just use the remote to make the collar beep and he'll back off. Good boy, sometimes! lol

Catching up...

I haven't been posting to much I know, but I'm going to try to make more of an effort to do so since I know there are actually a few regular readers out there.. Hi Donna, Kim and my April2007DTC Secret Pal!!

Let's see, first was our annual "decorate the tree" get together which we've had 3 out of 4 years we've been in our house, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving. We don't have a huge house so we don't have too many people over, maybe 12 or 13 people, and that is a full house! Other than the cleaning and shopping to prepare for that, I also wanted to finish this mini china cabinet I've been building for the past year off and on. I say mini but it's really less the half the width of a normal size china cabinet. I think it's called a chimnet cabinet. Anyway, our dining room is kinda small so I just wanted a small tall cabinet in there so it wouldn't take up to much room so I found these plans online last year and started working on it. Then when it got warm I stopped to do work outside but I at least wanted to have it finished for the party. It's pretty much like a bar since all the liquor and glasses are in there, but I guess I could always put plates and such in there if I wanted to. First 2 shelves I have crystal vases and glasses then the last is the bottles. The bottom shelf is for storage. I LOVE the way the stained glass panel makes it look! I purchased that online from a stained glass place. It's all clear glass, but 3 different designs. Most of it is called "clear seedy: and old fashined look to it with little air bubbles in it. Then the strips are called "clear water" and the diamonds are just clear beveled squares. I tried to do an antigued aged paint finish on it and I think it turned out pretty good. Of course, I had practiced with several colors of stain prior to doing this. Very time consuming but I wanted it to come out right. Here are some pics...

Not quite finished in the below picture.

After the antiqued finish in the (very messy) garage.

The finished product!

The pictures aren't that great, it looks better in person! LOL I've learned alot making this cabinet! Plus got to use a variety of tools and techniques including my new table saw I got last year!

Not sure what I want to build next, but It definetly won't be anything big. I actually put more money than I wanted to into this cabinet (like the glass panel and shelves), so the big projects will have to wait a while. Whatever I make next will be with scrap wood I have left over, maybe I'll make Yoshi a doghouse! lol

Next, I set aside one Saturday to make Christmas cookies with my Mom (her recipe). So that was an all day venture, since I am hardly the cook! lol Only problem is we made them way too early and they are all gone now! LOL So much for loosing another 5 pounds in December! Here's a pic of the yummy butter cookies!!

I also was working on DVD I wanted to give my mom for Thanksgiving because I knew she would be going to my brother's house and I figured she could watch it there since she didn't have a DVD player at her house at the time. I bought her one a few weeks ago, but she is technically challenged to say the least so she hasn't used it yet. This took me a little while to put together. My mom LOVES my dog, calls him HER dog! She also is a huge Barry White fan. So I took one of her favorite songs and pics of the dog and her and the dog so she could watch it from time to time when she is bored. Please excuse the messy messy house in some of the pics! (See a theme here? LOL ) I also wanted to practice making a video like this so I can make one when we get home from China with our daughter!

I think I mentioned this in another post but I've been trying to think of some ways to save/make some extra money for the adoption. When we started this journey we refinanced the house so that we'd have enough money to cover the cost of the adoption, but I am thinking we are probably going to need more. Probably another $5000 or so. We spent more than we were planning on getting all of our paperwork expedited so we would meet the deadline. I think we are also going to end up spending more money getting things updated after our first fingerprint/USCIS which is free I believe. But the year after that won't be, and also I think we'll need a homestudy update in order to do the USCIS part, not sure exactly how that works yet. Plus now that I'm on different message boards and groups I've heard that people have spent more than what we originally budgeted for. One "good" thing about this extended wait time is we'll have plenty of time to come up with the money!

Anyway, I've been trying to come up with some ideas for either fundraising or selling stuff or whatever to make some extra money. I've pretty much sold everything I could get rid of on Ebay already..LOL I was thinking about adding a ChipIn box to the blog, but I'm SO not the type of person to ask for donations. So I was thinking maybe of doing some type of raffle, but I'm not sure what kind of raffle to do or exactly how it would work. I think most of the people who read this blog are probably also waiting for their child to come home as well, so I'm not sure if I'd be able to sell enough "tickets", but it seems like it could be more fun than just asking for donations, which I really would rather not do. I'm not sure what I could raffle off either. Maybe something simple and generic like a gift card(s) or maybe something more specific like a collection of baby items, like a gift basket or maybe a set of books or adoption related items. I could actually get my shopping fix by buying a nice collection of baby items to raffle off! I haven't been buying anything lately except for my Secret Pal. I've been really good otherwise! This might even be the last Secret Pal Swap I do for a while once this one ends next year. It's only about $20 a month, but $20 is $20 right. It does help to pass the time, but I may need to take a break just to accumulate some funds.

Maybe you guys could help me out with this. Let's see if I can add a poll...

I could always just add the ChipIn and then decide if I shoudl do raffles later. I could also add a ticket for all fundrasing efforts, like things funded by Ebay sales, etc. I'll have to think about this some more.

The other thing I have been doing this month is researching ways to make some extra cash online. Yes, I know.. very risky, but I'm a very very careful person as far as identity theft and viruses and spyway (I'm a computer tech so I have that covered as best I can.. lol I'm trying to be careful). So I've been doing as much research as possible and have found a few things that will work, but won't make me rich or anything. One is doing online surverys for market research companies (only the reputable ones that actually pay). I've already signed up for a bunch of market research companies that from my research actually are not scams, don't sell your personal info and really pay either by check or by PayPal. And we are only talking about maybe $5-20 a month per company, depending on how many (IF any) surveys are available and that I qualify to take. There are a few where you can do a daily survey and if you qualify to complete the survey that's $1 a day.

There are other programs where you get paid to click on ads and maybe get 1 cent per ad you click on or a fraction of a cent. I've made a whopping .18 cents already! LOL Actually deposited in Paypal. lol I probably won't spend to much time with those. But hey every little bit helps right??

I've added a separate page to this blog called Making Extra Cash if anyone is interested in seeing if this is going to work or not! lol I'm not putting a link for this blog on that one since that one will be anonymous since I am on a message board just regarding surveys and making money online and those people might check out that blog but I don't need them to check this one out. LOL I can also make some extra money from having people sign up to some of these programs under me as referrals, which is why I have the separate blog for that. I'm not putting any links on this blog for those programs because I'm sure 99% of you are not at all interested! LOL So I'm not going to go into more info about that here, just wanted to share what I've been up to in my spare time which is why I haven't been blogging much lately.

I'll continue in a new post. This one is getting LONG!

8 Months!!

WOW! It's been 8 months already! I guess this whole "keeping busy" thing really does work! LOL Next post I'll post about some of the things I've been doing to keep busy during this LONG wait. Congrats to all my April LID buddies out there!!!!

Referral Time - December 9-14

For those not familiar with how referrals work, imagine you pick a number at the deli counter or DMV. Our number (LID) is 4-17-07. They (China, CCAA) are now serving (matching babies with families) people with ticket numbers (LIDs) between 12-9-05 and 12-14-05. Referrals only happen once a month. You do the math.

Some days are good days, some days are not so good days. When I spend too much time thinking about it, it doesn't seem like it's ever going to happen. But on the other hand, if I keep busy, it doesn't seem too bad. I know our number will be called one day. Just wish it was sooner than later.

Hopefully Jan will bring more days referred at one time.

Congrats to all who have been matched this month!!!

1 Year Ago...

One year ago today we mailed in our application to CCAI. CCAI was actually our second choice (should have been the first) but the first agency we applied to was already putting the unofficial (at that point) restrictions into place and rejected our application. CCAI on the hand told us there were no official restrictions yet (they came out on Dec 8, 2006 I believe) and even when they did come out just told us to get our Dossier to them by April 13th, 2007, which we did. Thanks CCAI for at least giving us a chance!

I can't believe it's been a year already!

20.2 Lbs. Lost!

FINALLY! Last week before Thanksgiving I was .2 lbs away from 20 pounds lost so far...soooo close! And then there was Thankgiving! 2+ pounds later, and only took me a week to loose it again and meet my second mini-goal of losing 20 pounds (first mini-goal was getting under the BMI of 40)! So next mini-goal is to loose another 20 pounds. Which let's just throw it all out there... would put me under 200 pounds! YES, I just posted that! LOL I haven't been under 200 pounds in YEARS! I figure it doesn't matter if I post it or not (I have my weight loss ticketer on here anyway) and it just makes me want to work harder to make sure it happens now that my business is all out there in the open.

I gotta tell you though, I don't know how I lost the 2 pounds of Thanksgiving food this past week though. I didn't work out at all this week, and we were eating leftovers all week, including cake and pie and brownies. But at least I know that has to stop or else the scales are going to turn around and start going back up again! When you think about it.. it took me YEARS to gain all this weight, so it'll take time to loose it all and if I have some cake or something for the holidays, that doesn't mean I am going to gain 10 pounds back the next day!

I also know that there are certain things I just can't do in moderation and those need to stay out of the fridge!! Soda being in the Top 5! I really haven't been drinking soda (Pepsi was my addiction of choice) for about 3 years. But get me started on a 2 liter and that 2 liter will be gone by the end of the day (if that long). Then there is cake or pie, the sugarier (if that is even a word!) the better.. the more creamy frosting the better. Next on the list would be chocolate, but I've been really good lately. We have a bunch of Halloween candy left over and I only once in a while have one of the mini-mini Milky Ways.

Bottom line... I'm starting to get it. I get that I need to eat less (in general, but eat 3 meals a day) and better and work out more and have put it into practice and it is paying off! Woohoo!

Happy Thanksgiving!

7 Months Down!

Wow! Wasn't it just 6 months the other day?? LOL I think the rest of this year will fly by as well with the holidays and all the running around. Then I'll have to keep myself busy come January so the wait doesn't get to me!

Referral Time!

Well, it's that time of the month again! LOL REFERRAL TIME! The CCAA has matched babies with families who have LIDs of Dec. 1-8, 2005. More than last month so that's good (Last month was 5 days).

I've updated my little LID map too...

Just a few more days to fill in.. LOL

Gifts, Weight and Halloween

I haven't been posting much lately so I'll try to cover everything in this one.. LOL Since I work from home, I'm pretty much in my office all day long on 2 laptops. Once 5Pm rolls around, last thing I want to do is hang out in this room and on the computer! LOL

This month was the big reveal for one of my Yahoo groups (CCAI). This is the month where my secret pal reveals herself to me with the last gift. Drumroll please... My secret pal for the last 6 months is Cathy from SC! And here is a pic of the last gifts from Cathy. A very cute ladybug bag, 2 little baseball hats, one pink and one denim with ladybugs, cute little t-shirts with ladybugs (see the theme here..lol) a little notebook with a ladybug, cute cute CUTE little dragonfly hair clips and a beautiful handmade pin with our LID month and year on it! She also wrote a great note telling me a little about herself. This was a great secret pal swap and definitely helped the last 6 months go by so fast! Thank you Cathy for everything!

Now as I said, under the denim hat there is an adorable little pink hat.

And it bears a striking resemblance to a certain pink hat that a certain grandma-to-be is obsessed with...

The pink hat has been replaced a few times, but always with another pink hat. I let Yoshi chew a hole in one of the pink hats, I've tried to "accidentally" loose the pink hat.. but noooo, it just multiplies. Ma, I thought your favorite color was blue? LOL Anyway, Grandma-to-be loved the little pink baby hat the most! Gee I wonder why! LOL

Ok next, on the other Yahoo group I'm in (April DTC) I received October's secret pal gift. This secret pal swap continues till I think next July. This month my wonderful secret pal sent an adorable little stuffed pumpkin head toy that lights up and plays spooky music. Yoshi LOVES that toy.. but too bad Yoshi, it's not for you! LOL There was also a cute bib that says "watch me as I grow",a set of 3 pre-school puzzles and a very pretty journal with a very thoughtful inscription from my secret pal. Thank you Secret Pal!! I loved everything!

Oh and a little Halloween critter was also included in the package and actually made me jump.. LOL

Let's see what else.. ah the weight loss journey. Well, since July 26th, just a little over 3 months, I have lost 17.2 lbs!! WOOOHOOO! Sometimes it goes back up a pound or two before continuing to go down but still, I'll take it! The hardest part of this is trying to eat good stuff, especially snacks. I try not to eat any white bread, not alot of pasta or rice, trying to eat more fruits. I have been doing SlimFast almost once a day since I have a bad habit of skipping breakfast, so that's better than nothing. I've been doing pretty good, except that today we had pizza for dinner. It's really hard to do this when one of us who shall remain nameless (but it's not me.. lol ) wants to order pizza for dinner. Oh yea sure, I could say "no pizza" and I even think I did, but it's pizza! If I can smell it I am going to eat it. The working out part isn't too hard at all though which is good. I do about 30 minutes on the bike every other day or so and sometimes follow that with the treadmill. Anyway, the combination seems to be working so far. And now that it's been 3 months, I think I'll be able to keep up this pace.

Here are a few pics from Halloween. First one is the pizza-ordering monster and Yoshi.

My fur-baby waiting for the trick-or-treaters to come by...





I'm tired of typing now... LOL I'll try to post more frequently. I am way behind on posting all the lovely quilt squares I've received so far. I'll have to make some time to update that site too.
Wow, it's November already! LOL

Moving Right Along...

Six months have gone by pretty quick. I wonder if the next 2 -3 years will go by as quickly. LOL I somehow doubt it.

Last year around this time is when we made the decision to adopt. We were going through the last miscarraige and just had enough of the fertility meds that were making me crazy. It was a pretty easy and freeing decision. It dawned on me I didn't need to be pregnant to have a family. Then it took us about a month to research all our adoption options. Choosing China was also a pretty easy decision. It fit for us and we qualified, at the time. Then we finally chose an agency, learned about the new restrictions and did the mad dash paperchase to meet the May 1st deadline (otherwise we would no longer qualify). Well, we made it, and here we are 6 months after our log in date. Of course when we were logged in April 17th, the wait time was 18 months at the time. Now I think it is 22 or 23 months. I've learned that it is 22 months for those logged in from Nov. 2005. Which just means the wait time is going up up up! Oh well, we are in it for the long haul. So while we've been logged in for 6 months, we made the decision to adopt a year ago. Time flies!!

Fortune Cookie

We had Chinese take-out the other night and I just got around to opening my fortune cookie. Here is what it said...
Ahhhhh, yes it is! And I am working on it! LOL Almost 6 months down too! Some days are better than others. I have plenty of things to do to keep busy that's for sure. I have my mind set with waiting 3 years (well now 2 1/2 years!) but when I think it could be more, well, let's not go there.

Thank you to my April DTC Secret Pal!

I received my Sept. secret pal gift today! This Discovery Ladybug is the cutest thing!! Is it a book? Is it a rattle? Is it a squeaky toy? YES YES YES! All of the above. She also sent these cute magnets that spell out "Raven". Sooooo cute! They are up on the fridge already! Right under my little LID map! Thank you Secret Pal!!

LID Map

Ok, I know... I have WAY too much time on my hands! LOL I wanted to make some kind of visual countdown thing that I could look at and update every time there are referrals. So I made this map which list all the LID (Log In Dates) that still have to be referred before they get to ours, April 17, 2007. Looks like this month (they only send referrals once a month) they only referred up to Nov. 30th, 2005 (Not official yet), which is really only 3 days. I've included weekend days on my map just because it was easier to countdown that way. So since last month when they referred up to Nov. 25th, 2005, they have now referred up to the 30th, 2 days being a weekend. That in itself is very sad that they only got to 3 days this month. hopefully it'll pick up next year. So I am going to color in the dates with red marker every month, and in the end it'll be my own little representation of the "red thread" because all the the circles will be red, starting from the USA to China. Anyway, like I said, I have way too much time on my hands!

Yoshi's Shiba Inu Scream

This post is dedicated to my canine baby, Yoshi. LOL

One distict characteristic of a Shiba Inu is called the Shiba scream. This is a high-pitch yell/howl/whine/cry/ouch!-my-ears kind of yodel that Shibas seem to have mastered. This happens almost every time the phone rings.



If you've never heard of a Shiba Inu before, here is a little information for you:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiba_Inu


I saw a "red" one years ago and always wanted one, whenever the time was right to get a dog. I didn't even know they had "black and tan" Shibas until I saw this cute little puppy at the pet store one day and HAD TO have him! How he has grown!

Can you believe this is the same dog?? At least he grew into his ears!! LOL

Sept. Secret Pal Gift (CCAI)

I received one of my secret pal gifts for this month already. An adorable panda rattle/toy, a Panda-Z Japanese Anime (which Freddy loved of course!) and a panda notepad. Also love the Hello Kitty card! Thank you CCAIMarchApril Secret Pal if you are reading this!! You're a great secret pal and I can't wait to find out who you are next month!

I'm starting to really have a thing for all things panda and ladybug related!

Books & Making Money!

As I mentioned in previous posts, I LOVE BOOKS! I also love money! LOL But hardly have any money these days... LOL In an attempt to make a little extra money (probably very little) one thing I did was to add some Amazon links to books about either China, adoption or children's books and if you scroll through the pages and find a book you want to buy and click on the link, it'll bring you to Amazon.com and if you decide to actually purchase that book, I get a very small percentage. Hey, every little bit helps!! LOL Heck, I am even going to click on my own links if I decided to purchase any of these books, which of course, I WANT THEM ALL!! I doubt this is really going to drastically increase my income, and I have some time but one of the big things we have to save for is money for the Leave of Absences that we both need to take when we go to China and after. I'd love to take off at least 2 months and I think Freddy can only take off 1 month, but unfortunately, we don't get paid for that time so it's something to save for.

Anyway, this is a new book out that I am trying to hold off buying (with the whole saving money thing..LOL) but I may have to break down and buy it.. LOL If you wanna check it out (and maybe even purchase it, I've included a convenient link for you! LOL Oh come on, I'm trying here!! LOL



What I am going to try to do is provide a little review from time to time on something I've read or something new I find with a new link from time to time, but on the right-hand side of this blog I added a complete list of all the books I either have, want or just came across so you can click on those links too.

I think I'm also going to see what stuff I can put on Ebay. I definetly could work on reorganizing the house and getting rid of a few things!

5 Months Down!

As long as I don't think about how long it's going to take before we go get Raven, I'm good. LOL The months are still going by pretty fast. I'm trying to keep busy with everyday life, Secret Pal shopping and projects around the house. So 5 months really did seem to fly by. Once in a while I feel like life is on hold, but as long as the time doesn't start dragging too much it'll be ok. A few things we kind of put on hold are buying a new car for me (not sure if we'll need to provided updated financials when we hit the Review Room), getting another dog, a companion for Yoshi, but then that is 2 dogs we'll probably have to board when we go to China, anything involving spending money.. LOL

Anyway, I'm happy with the 5 months! Let's keep it moving! Hopefully the CCAA will also start referring more LID days in the next couple of months as well. Hopefully the wait won't extend to more than 3 years.

Under BMI 40!

For those non-China adopters, China had changed some of their requirements to adopt from China after May 1st (Doesn't apply to us this time around because our paperwork was in before May 1st, so we're good), one of which is the adoptive parents must have a BMI lower than 40. We were both over the 40, but as of today my BMI is officially under 40! That was my first weight loss goal, which amounts to 8.6lbs lost so far. The next weight loss goal is a bit more, 31 more lbs. Piece of cake! Well, ummm... maybe not cake.. LOL Piece of carrot just doesn't sound right though!

My system has been pretty simple really, and I always knew that this would work (so far so good anyway). Eat less (and better), work out more. Pretty easy right? LOL NOT! I'm at least trying to eat 3 meals a day even if one of them is a SlimFast shake. I'm used to not eating breakfast so now I am eating something for breakfast. Sometimes I have cereal for lunch. No, not Lucky Charms or Fruit Loops.. lol something a little less sugary. I already eat whole grain bread (most of the time). And I TRY to work out on the stationary bike and/or treadmill everyday for at least 30 minutes. Most of the time I drink water or seltzer. Hopefully I can keep up this momentum. 8.6 pounds in 7 weeks isn't bad at all. I'll take it!

Books! Books! Books!

I love books! I bought these today (Well I bought them a few days ago online, they came in the mail today..LOL). Both are board books, one is a book of babies smiling, the other is a cute little panda book with cutouts! I think I'll have to ban myself from all bookstores for a while!

I Have A Second Secret Pal!

I'm in a second Yahoo Group called April2007DTC which just started exchanging Secret Pal gifts this month. Yesterday I received a package from my new Secret Pal for this group! It is 2 adorable children's books, My First Counting Book and Dr. Seuss's A B C, a pretty card and a Sing-Along Microphone! The microphone has a recording on my Secret Pal's daughter on it! It's soooo cute! I think I'll have listen to that from time to time during this long wait to keep my spirits up! The mike also plays songs to sing along to. Too cute! I love it! Thank you April2007DTC Secret Pal!!

4 Months Down!

Not alot, but if you think about it terms of months and not years, 4 months is a nice little dent. Say the wait is 36 months total (which noone really knows and it could be more or less), then 4 months down leaves only 32 months left! LOL Ok so that is stretching the enthusiasm a bit, but that's getting closer to being under 30 months! LOL I was thinking last night, I keep saying that the wait could be 3 years and I was saying that months ago, so it seems like the wait will still be 3 years, BUT we've already waited 4 so we could technically have LESS than 3 years left! I put WAY TOO MUCH thought into this! But whatever makes the wait not seem as long as it is!

This is a short post since it's very dark out and there is thunder and lightning so I should turn off the PC.

August Secret Pal Gift is here!

I'm really enjoying this secret pal swap! Another group I'm in has just started a secret pal swap too so I'll be doing 2 swaps a month. It's so much fun shopping for my pals and of course it's fun to receive gifts from my secret pal each month! Each month the group has a theme for the gift, like this month was children's books for one group and children's music for the other group. It's funwhen shopping trying to find things to fit the themes.



I love checking the mail! I received a gift from my CCAI March/April Secret Pal today. It included a VERY cute toy that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, some scrapbooking stuff and a Baby Einstein music CD! Even the card was cute! Where do people find these cute things??

This definetly reminds us what we are waiting for and makes the wait not as bad. Now when I go shopping, if I find something for my secret pal, I've been buying one for Raven too! LOL Especially if I find a good sale. I would post some of the pics of cute things I've bought recently, but then my secret pals could probably figure out who I am.. and it's a secret, remember? LOL Shhhhhh! LOL