Buy Buy Baby

I hit Buy Buy Baby this afternoon and on the 50% off clearance rack found these 2 cute cute little tops!! Gotta love a sale! These were originally $21.00 each, and I got them for $4.98 each! WOOOHOOO! These were the only 2 on the rack that had an Asian theme, so I bought both! Couldn't help myself! LOL

Too cute!!!

10 Months!

I must be doing something right as far as the wait is concerned, because this past month has really flown by!! It really feels like I just posted about our 9 month anniversary a week ago. I guess it helps that work is insanely busy so each day blends into the next. Plus I work from home so I never know what day it is! LOL Only bad part about that is the weekends fly by as well. I am actually taking a couple of vacation days this week just to relax for a bit.

I think I am going to go out right now and buy Raven a little something! I haven't bought anything in a long time except for my secret pal. I was trying to buy a little something for Raven every month for our LID anniversary, but I don't think I bought anything last month. In fact, we haven't been buying anything extra in an attempt to get the bills down and save more money. We did do our taxes though recently and bought a new living room sofa (sectional) because ours was stabbing us in the back everytime we sat down! LOL So it was time for a new one! The rest of the money is being banked and will probably go alittle towards bills and a little added to the adoption fund.

So that's where I'm at on this 10th month LID anniversary! If I get Raven something today I will post pics later. Usually when I intend to go out to buy something, I find nothing though! LOL We'll see. I might just have to go on Amazon and get a book or two for her.

Is It A Sign?

I want to share a little strange/eerie/cool little thing that happened to me today. I have to explain a few things first though or else it'll make NO SENSE. LOL

First, I've watched probably like a hundred or more "Gotcha/Family Day" videos since starting this journey and have thought many times about what songs I'd want for our video (which I will be making myself probably). While I have a few songs picked out for an overall video, I've always had the idea of also doing a short little video just about my personal experience meeting my daughter for the first time and our first few days/weeks together (I'm sure there will be lots of crying and screaming..., oh and I'm sure the baby will be too! LOL but I'm just talking about the nice parts here). I have always thought of using the song "At Last" by Etta James. I've always loved the song (big classic R&B/Jazz fan) and while I know it's probably more of a romantic song, the lyrics I think will fit perfectly with how I will feel when the time comes, especially with this long wait. So I want to make one small video with that one song, with pics & video of me and my daughter. Everytime I listen to that song I can picture the video in my mind and I get all teary-eyed. In fact, I was just listening to it yesterday (mp3) and had to play it twice.

Second, no secret I've been a little bummed out of the rumors that it's going to take more than 3 years to even be matched. OK, alot bummed out! There were even talks of switching agencies & countries, or possibly doing a concurrent adoption from another country, but the money just isn't there for that. There was also some special needs talks, but so far, we've pretty much decided to just stay the current course and see what happens, for now.

ANYWAY, that was a lot of build up for my little 2 second moment I had today! LOL This is what happened... I was at Bed, Bath & Beyond looking around today, I had gone around the whole store and was heading for the exit when I past one of those displays that have like 10 CDs of like soundscapes, beach sounds, oldies, etc. You know the ones, the display plays a sample of one of the songs on one of the numbered CDs and then goes to the next one... Well, anyway, I was walking past the display and just glaced at a CD on the end which said "China" and that caught my eye of course. I stopped and reached for it and once I picked it up and started to look at the cover (below) which said "China, A Romantic Journey", the display started playing Etta James, "At Last". Ok now I'm tearing up again! Sheeesh!

So that was my moment. I know it'll make sense to fellow China adopters, just like ladybugs are the greatest thing since sliced bread these days. I completely believe in fate and signs and all that (not to a crazy extent or anything.. lol ) but that had to be some kind of sign that I need to just stick with China (and my "romantic journey") and one day I will actually be able make that video for my daughter. What are the chances that there would be a CD with Chinese love songs (instrumental) on the same display case as a CD of "oldies" love songs.. well.. lol ok, both love song CD.. but come on, the combination is a little strange. And what are the odds that as soon as I pick up the CD about China (not even knowing what was on the CD, I just saw "China") that Etta James would start singing "At Last" through the display??? Something special happened in that moment.

So of course, I bought the China CD. I found it also on Amazon so I listed it here.. you can play a sample of each song on the CD. I'm listening to it now. It's very soothing, sounds maybe like music that would be playing in the background of a movie.

You can listen to "At Last" here for free (might have to select the song from the list): http://www.freewebtown.com/community/mp3_playlist.php?id=10161

"At Last" - Etta James

At last my love has come along

My lonely days are over

And life is like a song

Ohh yeah yeah

At last the skies above are blue

My heart was wrapped up in clover

The night I looked at you

I found a dream, that I could speak to

A dream that I can call my own

I found a thrill to rest my cheek to

A thrill that I have never known

Ohh yeah yeah…You smile, you smile

And then the spell was cast

And here we are in heaven

For you are mine at last

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'd LOVE some chocolate right about now, but that would be bad considering I am back on a roll with my weight loss goal! My weight is no big secret anymore since I mention it whenever I post updates and have a lovely weight loss ticker. LOL I wanted to be under 200lbs for my 40th birthday which is exactly a month from today. I have 15 more pounds to go! Not sure if that will happen in a month, since I was averaging about 5 lbs a month, but I am trying!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Referral Time Again!

Seems like it came extra fast this month! And apparently they referred a whole 8 days, 12/20/05 - 12/27/05!! WAY better than 3 or 4 days! LOL I can't wait to see all the pictures of the babies!

NY BABY!

I Never Thought I'd See The Day...

...when the dog and BOTH cats could actually occupy the same room at the same time!! Ok, so I have nothing else to blog about, BUT THIS IS BIG!! LOL Ever since we got Yoshi (dog) in '06, the cats have pretty much stayed away from him. In fact, they stay on different floors pretty much all the time and only come out of hiding when Yoshi goes outside. They are either in the basement or upstairs, both places Yoshi does not go because he doesn't like stairs. Well, every once in a while, my older cat Jake would come out of hiding sometimes and if Yoshi even tried to go near him, Jake would pretty much chase Yoshi away.. it's actually pretty funny to watch. And then Jake would go back into hiding. So after a while Jake pretty much knew he still ran the house, LOL, as long as he knew I was around to protect him just in case. But still, when Yoshi comes in from outside, the first thing he does is check to see if the cats are on the stairs because he knows they come out when he goes outside. Sometimes Yoshi will ring the bell to go out (we have a cow bell hanging from the back door) and wait for me to open the door, then decide he doesn't want to go out and he does this just to see if the cats come out when I close the door. Sneaky doggie. ANYWAY, the younger cat, Goku, would NEVER come out with Yoshi inside. Until I decided to start feeding the cats in the kitchen (they usually eat in the basement). Well, I've been working at this for a few weeks now.. and this is where we are. Both cats will come out when they hear the can (what cat wouldn't?) even if Yoshi is in the house. And Yoshi, although you can see he REALLY wants to pounce, behaves himself for the most part.. even with cat food around! It's a miracle really!! LOL I actually feel comfortable enough now to leave them in the same room together for a little while at a time. At the worst, Yoshi will loose his mind and try to "play" with them and get smacked.. but he's pretty good at dodging the cat paw by now. I tell him to "stay" and "leave it" and he listens for the most part. I never thought we'd get this far! Here are some pics...

Here Yoshi is keeping his distance, only took a few "leave it"'s and a "stay".. lol You can see Jake eating and Goku is under the table, staying as far away as possible.

"I AM being a good boy Mom!" or maybe... " All done? All done? Can I go? Pleeeease?" LOL




Then it gets better... Jake has no fear anymore.. walks right past the dog to get to me.

And then... confrontation.. Jake is saying "don't mess with me dog.." lol Yoshi looks like he's saying " please don't smack me".. lol

Then Goku appears out of nowhere.. lol , still in the background. I can't even believe at this point they are this close to each other.

And now even Goku can be this close. I'm so proud of my babies!

Well, that's about all I've got to say about that! LOL Nothing else new on this end. Referrals should be coming out this week? Next week? Hopefully there are more than 5 days or so being referred. It would be nice to get done with Dec. 2005 already. Let's get a move on 2006 LIDs already!

9 MONTHS!

Who knew 9 months could have such a different meaning for me these days!?!?! 9 months is 3/4 of a year!!! It's been 9 months I've been "officially" waiting for Raven as far as the CCAA is concerned. 9 months is only 3 months short of a year! When you add up the numbers in my house number, the total is 9! lol I feel like 9 months is a significant dent in this long wait.

In honor of other things that take about 9 months.. lol I'm selling all my pregnancy related books on Ebay!

HAHA

3 Pre-Pregnancy Books -Taking Charge of Your Fertility+

3 Pregnancy Books Including "What to Expect"

Not much else is going on here. The numbers on my scale are starting to go in the right direction again, so that's good. But that's really about all I have to report.

I have a ton of projects that need to be finished, but I don't know where to start.

I'd LOVE to start a new project in my closet, requiring some building and re-organization. It's really a make-shift closet I made out of a semi-crawl space. We're in a Cape style house and this is a little "room" if you can even call it that, on the second floor. Pretty much as soon as you walk in the very narrow doorway, your head will hit the ceiling.. lol There is alot of space in there but only about maybe 3 feet of standing space. Right now I have some metal shelving in there and I had a stand along garment rack which recently collapsed. So my plan is to build a semi-free standing structure in there which will be partially for hanging clothes on the top and shelves on the bottom. And then I'd like to put some kind of shelving unit under where the roof/ceiling is slanting so I can store more there too (without hitting my head all the time!). Once I have a better idea what I want to do I'll post some before and after pics. I should be able to do this rather inexpensively with some cheap wood. Any excuse to get me into Home Depot! lol

Hubby wants me to build him a storage unit for his paintings. He's going to a Fine Arts school and needs something to allow his oil paintings to dry without gathering lint and dust. I might have to do this first since it should be a relatively quick project.

I'd also really like to build my furry baby a dog house, but he'll have to wait till the summer, maybe.

Some "softer" projects I need to work on is a baby blanket/quilt I started a while ago, and associated, matching bedding. I'll have to get it out of the closet, then I'll post a picture. Then of course there is the 100 Good Wishes quilt that I need to start. But I have time for that.

Plenty more projects to work on, nothing exciting though! lol

Well, that's all for now!

Chinese New Year Books

A month from now will be the first day of Chinese New Year, so I wanted to post some links to some children's books on Amazon about Chinese New Year for anyone interested in adding to their collection! Chinese New Year begins on the first day of the first lunar month (this year that falls on February 7th) and ends on the 15th day.



Enjoy!

Referral Time - December 15-19th 2005

Sooo only 5 days referred this month, and 2 days were weekend days. Hmmmm. I don't even have a comment for that. I think a bunch of us were waiting for January to come because supposedly CCAA had told the agencies several months ago when they were here that starting in January 2008 they would start trying to refer 15 days per month. Well, that didn't happen this month. Maybe next month? Maybe the month after? I'm a mathematical person (putting that accounting degree to some use here.. lol) and at this rate it will take a minimum of 6 years assuming 7 days referred per month.

I want to be positive about this, I really do... I really try. But there is always this big build up right before the beginning of the month and a huge let down after the cutoff date is announced.

I am very happy for those who received referrals this month!! I do believe if we wait it out it will happen ONE day. I just don't like that that one day could be YEARS from now.

Hubby and I were talking about other options today, although we are sticking it out with China definitely. The other options would be a concurrent adoption, but we'd probably have to save for a couple of years at a minimum to make that happen (and Raven could be close to coming home by then) or we could switch to SN (Special Needs) although if we do switch I don't want it to solely be because of the wait time. We aren't familiar with SNs right now, and in the beginning because of Hubby's history of dealing with his sister's SN and his Mom for years while she was sick, he was against even thinking about a SN child. But he actually said today that we could at least do some research about the types of SNs and what that all entails.

I figure by this time next year, we'll have a better idea of how long this wait will really be and still have plenty of time to research other options while sticking with China.

Ok so I am not going to be a downer for the rest of the month now that this is out of my system. Just needed to vent a bit.

Kill. Save. Loose.

Those are my main goals for 2008.

Kill the bills.
Save more money.
Loose more weight.

Pretty simple right? Those are the main goals. Got a bunch of mini-goals, like maybe studying for another computer certification since I haven't taken one in a while, continue to read and learn as much about China and adoption and children as I can, continue to work on crafts that have been started but not yet finished and not start any new projects for a while unless I already have the materials, work in backyard when it gets warmer, etc. Nothing major, but enough to keep me busy.

I need to keep busy for sure this year because my birthday is in March and everytime this year I already start dreading my birthday (why wait till the last minute to dread it? LOL ). And this year is extra-dread as I will be the big 4-0. Hubby will be 40 Feb. 23rd, then me on Mar. 14th. He wants to have a big shindig (did I just say shindig?) for his 40th, I want to go hide under a rock. LOL

Anyway, here's to the rest of 2008!

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