13 Months!

13 months down! I have a feeling the summer is going to fly by. I have plenty of things to do to keep me busy.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!!

THANK YOU TO MY SECRET PAL!!

Dear Secret Pal,

WOW! Your package was a TOTAL surprise!! I thought you covered April in last months HUGE box of goodies (Or is this for May? I'm loosing track of the months.. lol which is good with this long wait!!!) All I can say is THANK YOU!! What a GREAT surprise!

I LOVE the outfits!! They are adorable!! They will definitely come in handy for the NY winters!!

The Precious Moments "Hay Good Lookin'" figurine is so cute!! That was so thoughtful of you to go through all that to get this special and thoughtful gift! Gotta love Ebay!! And the ladybug makes it extra special!! It's perfect and is on a shelf above my desk where I can see it all the time (it's definitely not going in the closet!). I wish I could have gotten a clearer picture. It's so cute!

Jake is doing well and has been very playful now that he is feeling better. Here is a couple of pics of him bringing one of his foam balls to me to play. It's funny you mention the "spooning".. lol I don't really have too much choice in the matter!! He will come up on the bed and back up into my chest and plop himself against me. If I roll over, well, then he does the same thing on the other side. He's a big mush!!

My Mom is doing well, thank you for asking. She has been coming over on Wednesdays and staying till Saturday, then going back to her apartment for till Wednesday again. She was here today when your package came so it was great I got to open it with her (Hubby was at work.. I couldn't wait that long! lol)

I hope you have a great vacation!! Thank you so much for the gifts! You made my day!!!

Referrals, Shopping, Projects, Oh My!

I think that I get so bummed each month when CCAA only gets through a few LID days for referrals that I just need a few days to "move on". LOL This month, they only got to 3 days, January 10-12 2006. 3 DAYS! Alot of people seem to think things will pick up after the Olympics. I sure do hope so, because at this rate we are looking at 2012 and that is calculating with one week referred per month.


And that's where the retail therapy comes in! Hey, I have to have some vice to get through this loooong wait. Here are pics of the recent additions. First, I hit a Carter's gold mine in Costco the other day. Then I received my shipment I was waiting for of the incredible deals on Amazon.com of The Children's Place clearance items. I also had a Sears gift card I needed to "get rid of". So, I went a bit nuts.. maybe it's nesting? I need some excuse. I think I feel if I don't get these things now at these incredible prices, that by the time we get back from China we will not be able to afford anything! LOL

OK! Maybe I have a little problem! LOL But all these things only cost about $60 total! Come on, can't go wrong with that!

I really wish we could do a concurrent adoption, but even without the retail therapy, it's just financially not going to happen. We still need to come up with so much just to go to China as I think I mentioned in a previous post. We got the rest of the fees and most of the travel covered if we fly coach. UGH! I can't even think about that right now.


We were considering a concurrent adoption at one point (again) probably thru Ethiopia (since Vietnam is apparently closing..again), but I think for an infant you have to be younger than 41. Soooo that would be another rush to get in at the last minute since I'll be 41 next year. But again, no $$$. Or should I say, no $$,$$$? lol


Ok I'm done whining about that. Thanks for listening Blogger-world.


On a brighter note, I finished working on my closet!! WooooHoooo! I wasn't going to do the other side just yet, but Hubby said I could get the lumber to finish it as a Mother's Day present, so it's all done!! Some women like jewelry, some get flowers, I'm a happy camper with some lumber. I also put a little carpet down too. I feel so organized now.




Next project... well, there are so many, but I may get back into sewing on a regular basis. I always loved making kids clothes so maybe I can get back into that.. who knows, maybe sell a few things on ebay or through this blog. I used to sell clothes I made about 20-23 years ago. I made several prom dresses back in high school, I used to make my own clothes, I made my wedding dress, I've made kids clothes in the past. I should get back into it. I almost went to college for design, but accounting sounded more "stable", which is odd because now I'm a computer tech. LOL But I've always enjoyed sewing and fabric and putting things together. So that might be what I'm up to next. Of course, I have a ton of projects to do out in the yard now that it's warm. Just gotta keep busy, busy, busy!!

3rd Wedding Anniversay

3 years ago today, Hubby and I got dressed in a hotel in Niagara Falls, Canada, drove across the border to Niagara Falls, NY and was married in front of the Falls. Then we drove back to Canada and put jeans on and went about the rest of our day sightseeing. lol Noone back home knew we were going to do this. We just came back with a wedding video and showed it to everyone! Talk about low-key!

Both of us almost didn't remember, but yesterday I knew it was Cinco de Mayo so that was a reminder.. we were ALMOST married on 05-05-05! But alas, we got married the next day instead. lol We are not doing anything to celebrate this year, maybe next year.

Bunch of things..

I am so tired I couldn't think of a better title for this post.. lol But I do have a bunch of things to post a little about.

First, in the midst of the commotion this past month, I TOTALLY forgot to post pics on April 1st of Yoshi's 2nd birthday! LOL I only had time to throw together a little birthday hat for him, which of course he just "loves!" (=tolerates) and snap some pictures.

Happy 2nd Birthday Yoshi-Bear!!

Also I never got around to posting the pics of the 2 cute outfits my sister bought for Raven when she was over a few weeks ago (how time flies).

Then there is this little knit jacket I found this past weekend and book, $9 total. Couldn't pass that up.

Let's see what else. My Mom went home Saturday, but is coming back tomorrow for a few more days. I had some time this weekend to work on the closet.. one side is pretty much finished, but I am not sure if I am going to paint it right now or sometime down the road. I think it's fine the way it is, plus that is such a small space I don't want to pass out from paint fumes! lol The section below without a shelf has a bar in there where I can store some of Raven's things on hangers. And I have a good amount of storage behind the shelves too.

Now I have to work on the other side of the closet which will be some higher shelves and bar. I still have to plan that out a bit. Plus I might wait a bit to start working on that as wood isn't all that cheap! LOL

Talking about money, I have been doing a little calculating and I almost want to say it's probably a good thing we have another couple of years to wait, because I started calculating how much Business Class seats to China might be as opposed to coach seats and we only budgeted for what the agency estimated. We will definitely need to add to that for better seats because I don't like to fly to begin with and the longest flight I was on was to Vegas and that was about 5 1/2 hours and we were in coach and it was horrible. I felt like a sardine. So I thinking we will have to do business class there and back. Not sure if we can do part business class and part coach, depending on what airport we leave from and how many flights we have to take. Anyway, of course if the money ends up not being there we might have to just be sardines all the way to China, but that is going to make for one miserable flight. I think if we have to do coach on the way back, then we would try to get a seat for Raven to give us a little more room, at least that would be cheaper than business class. I don't know.. a lot to think about there. I mean it's a once in a lifetime trip, I'd like to be somewhat comfortable if I have to be on a plane for 12+ hours! I don't think that is too much to ask for. Then I'm hearing from our agency that the Orphanage Donation fee will most like go from $3000 to $5000 by the time we go. THEN, there is the matter of time off from work. Neither one of us get paid leave, so we will have to use as much vacation as possible and then try to save up enough by then to take some additional unpaid leave. So add all that up and that's a lot of money people!! It's been kind of stressing me out lately. But I'm going to go over the bills and see what we can cut where and see how that goes, plus we'll probably have another 2 years of taxes so that will definitely help. I gotta say though, I don't think there is going to be much of a chance of us adopting a second child, not even with the tax credit, if the tax credit even still exists then. It really shouldn't be this hard to have children!!!!!!!! Sheeesh!

Ok, I'm done with my little vent.

One more thing, my baby Jake is doing pretty good. He continues to eat and drink and he tolerates the IV for 5 minutes a day which is good. He is still his affectionate self which is good to see. We're just spoling him for as long as he lets us. Here he is from this weekend, getting a little playful with his toy. He's gaining a little weight back too (so am I, but that's another post!).

I think that's all I have to post about today. :-)

1 YEAR!

Well, it's been a whole 12 months since we were officially logged in with China! It has gone by very quickly. Not to wish another few years away, but I hope the rest of the time we have to wait (however long that is) goes by quickly too.

Quick updates...

Gonna make this update quick because I am pretty exhausted. Let's see, first, my baby Jake came home from the vet yesterday. I didn't actually think that was going to happen at all, but I am glad he is here. He still is not in great shape as his kidneys are failing, but his numbers got a little better with the extra fluids. We have to give him an IV drip for less than 10 minutes a day and some meds. Hubby did the IV today since the vet showed him how to yesterday when he went to pick him up. Doesn't seem like Jake is even bothered by the needle at all, but he doesn't want to sit still for very long which is an issue. Also trying to give him a pill isn't great either and I don't want to stress him out so that's going to be interesting. The good thing is he is eating and drinking and all that. He is getting around fine although he can't jump as high as he is used to and I've made a makeshift step ladder out of boxes so he can get into the window, his favorite spot. My goal is just to spoil him (more) and keep him happy and comfortable. He'll have to go back in a week for a blood test to see if the numbers are still going down or just maintaining (not going higher) and we'll go from there.

I'm very late on my referrals post.. so I'll just say referrals this month were for people with January 5th, 2006 - January 9th, 2006 LIDs. 5 days. No more to say about that, except congrats to those who were finally matched and received pictures of their babies this month.

My mom is still staying with us, maybe for another week or so. My diet is pretty much out the window, but will be back on track shortly. I have no willpower when there are snacks in the house.

I had started working on my closet last week. Here is the progress so far.

So that's where I am at with the closet. What's good is I will still have extra storage behind the shelves for boxes, things that I will probably never have to go get.. haha but will be easy to access by just taking out a shelf. next step is to make another unit to put next to this one that will go to the other end of the wall. I'm debating whether to throw a big carpet down in the whole space or just a runner in the aisle since that will really be the only place I'll be walking. I could always just keep the lovely 50's gold linoleum.. naaaahhhh. I'll probably paint it all too.

Oh yea, my sister had come by the other weekend with my niece and nephew and we went shopping and she bought two very cute outfits for Raven which I still need to take a pic of and will post that soon.

I think that is all for now. Not as quick as I thought. HAHA

My Poor Furbaby

My poor furbaby Jake (aka "Jakie-Poo-Poo", "Booger", "MyGoodBoy") is in the hospital. He has kidney failure. Freddy brought him to the vet yesterday after I noticed that he was walking kind of wobbley and not acting like himself. They are flushing his kidneys and they say he looks better but it's only a matter of time when I'll have to make the decision to let him go. He'll probably come home Monday and then we'll go from there and decide when it's time to bring him back. Jake is almost 13 years old and he's been with me since he was a kitten and I found him outside of an old job I used to work at along with his 4 siblings. 2 siblings I gave away and 2 I kept, one of which I had to put to sleep a year after I found him because he had some muscular issues and couldn't walk anymore.

Jake is such a good cat. He likes me to hold him like a baby (up to my shoulder) and dance with him. He likes to sleep ("spoon" position) with me. He likes to play with those little foam soccor balls or a rolled up piece of paper. He likes to drink super cold water out of the bathroom faucet. He is spoiled. He's my baby.

I have more to post about referrals and shopping and stuff, but not right now.

Thank You Secret Pal!!

Hi Secret Pal!! First of all, I hope you and your mother and husband are all feeling better!! Ironically, my mother went into the hospital last week from which started out as a cold and fever and turned into (or already was) some kind of infection. After a week in the hospital they still don't know where the infection was but it has gone away and she's on anit-biotics. She's 79 and also lives alone like your mother and after she was discharged yesterday we too brought her to our house until she's feeling better. I'm glad your little one hasn't gotten it!

Second, THANK YOU! It was a wonderful surprise today (especially after the past week I've had) to see the Fedex man drop off a huge box at the door!! I even got to open your package with Raven's Grandma! (Hubby was at work and I just couldn't wait that long!!). I LOVE everything!!! Where to start?!?!? I guess with January & February...

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the Home Depot gift card!! You have no idea how much I will enjoy that! And it's funny because I had just decided a few days ago that I was definitely going to work on the closet next! That was right after I threw more stuff in there that needed a temporary home.. lol I pretty much already have a good idea of what I want to do in order to maximize the storage space while hiding a bunch of the storage boxes I have in there and also organize my clothes at the same time. Here's a pic of how it looks now... the "before"... The gift card will definitely help with this!!! I'll be sure to post "after" pics when I'm done. Should keep me busy for a while too, which is good because this wait seems to go slower the more I think about it, so I need to keep busy as I have been pretty good at doing that so far and hopefully it'll continue to fly by.

I can only walk into the closet about 3 feet before hitting my head on the slope, but that is all I need and I want to set up that space so I can walk across the closet in that walking space/aisle and still have shelving on both sides. Or, I can just keep piling things in here! LOL I should have plenty of organized storage space when I am done, and at this rate, I will need the additional space for all of Raven's things I am accumulating!!

Thank you so much for thinking about my birthday! I love the beautiful candle holder and how cool is it that you got it when you were in China!!! That is going right on my desk at home (I work from home) where I can see it all day long and know that it was once in the country of my daughter! Wow!

On to March... LOVE MARCH! The journal is so cute and I am trying to write more instead of just adding what I can to the blog, so that is perfect! And the blanket is BEAUTIFUL!!!! SO SOFT!!! I love it!!! I'm not going to pack that away so I can just go and feel it from time to time! LOL

And now to April! LOL Love the fleece blanket and the little outfit is ADORABLE!!! Too cute!!! And both have little ladybugs! Very cute!! Love the green!!

I love all of it! Thank you so much! And don't worry about it being a little "delayed".. I was meant to get it today! I needed it today!! Perfect timing! Thank you!

11 Months Down!!

Wow! 11 months have passed already! Practically a year! If the next 2 years (and hopefully no more than that!) go by this fast, I think this wait will be somewhat manageable. This year has gone by pretty fast. The retail therapy has helped! lol Although I have been really good for several months and have only gone shopping for my secret pal, it helps to go shopping and to plan all the things I will buy! lol

I actually did go on a bit of a shopping spree last weekend and bought just "a few" things.. LOL I couldn't resist a good sale! Plus, I've become obsessed with ladybugs, so there is a theme on some of these. Here are the pics...

Also, I found out that my Secret Pal (the one I don't know yet) has been sick recently and I think she reads this blog so I want to say to her, I hope you are feeling better very soon! I was a bit worried when I didn't hear from you, so I just wanted to wish you a speedy recovery.