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!