Secret Pal, YOU ROCK!

I got my very first Secret Pal gift...how cool is that!!! Check out my gifts...

The first item is a totally adorable book called Love from my Heart...to a precious sweet little girl. It has a heart set into the book that lights and plays a music box type song when you press it.

When opened, the book is shaped like a heart. It's just so cute and so fitting for us and Lauren.

I also got two more board books called Ballerina Belle and Happy Baby Words. Both of them are so cute and just perfect.


I also got this adorable butterfly rattle that has wings that crinkle when squeezed...perfect for our China trip.

Some Chinese candies that taste almost exactly like the inside of a Butterfinger.

And last, but certainly not least, this sweet Secret Pal poem slipped into one of those clear, magnetic photo holders. It's on my note board in my craft room already.



Whoever you are, THANK YOU so much for these thoughtful gifts...I love them all!

Need your opinion, please...

I'm in a decorating dilemma and need your opinion on which colors to use for the nursery. Check out my options here.

Waiting Families Dinner...

Last night, Michele of My Baby Ava, hosted our monthly FCC-AZ Waiting Families group dinner. For those of you who don't know the adoption lingo, this is the Arizona chapter of the Families with Children from China and we are part of the Waiting Families group. Our group gets together monthly at the home of one of the families.

Michele was a wonderful hostess and her home is so warm and inviting. Her mom, Janet, made these adorable beaded bookmarks, complete with a ladybug charm, for each family. They are so cute!

Her dad, Sal, made his top secret recipe biscotti and it was absolutely wonderful!

The presentation was done by Maleesa, who brought her daughter, Zoe, home this past May. Maleesa teaches Baby Signs and spoke about the advantages of using signs with your child. We had fun learning some basic signs, which all seem to be pretty intuitive and it seems a baby really may be able to pick them up.

Michele has some photos posted if you'd like to check them out. Michele, thank you so much for a really nice evening!

Pondering...

Last weekend Joe and I changed our spare bedrooms around to empty out my former craft room for Lauren's nursery. Now one room is my craft room/computer room (I'll post a photo soon), one is empty for Lauren, and one has the treadmill and various other "stuff" that needs to be organized into the closets.

What I'm pondering and having a hard time deciding is whether we go ahead and start painting and putting together Lauren's nursery now or wait for a while. Also, do I redecorate the guest bathroom now or wait on this. I guess I'm stuck on this because I wonder if I want the room all done and just sitting empty for the rest of our long wait (which seems to be getting longer and longer by the day) or wait and do the room sometime much closer to our referral.

I just wonder how I will feel having a completed, empty nursery sitting there for months on end. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Giddy-up Horsey!

I couldn't resist picking up this little plush rocking horse for Lauren. I'm not a Beanie Baby fan, but this little guy is made by Ty and was on a display with a bunch on Beanies. They had both pink and blue. Isn't this just too cute!?

Good wish alert...

Check out my latest wish page here.

Comfort food...

Well, my hubby is out this evening and I'm in the mood for comfort food. Hummm...I think this will do.


I know, I know...it's packed with fat and sodium, but there's no turning back now since those little elbow macaroni's are boiling away this very moment. This is the good stuff too...not that nasty cheese powder that the kids get...this is the cheese sauce, baby!

I love gift certificates!

Joe and I headed to the mall today with gift certificates in hand. First stop was Brighton where I got the watch I've had my eye on for a while. Second stop was Pottery Barn Kids, and after looking around a bit at the beautiful, but over-priced items, we decided to get some bath stuff that was on sale. We want to redecorate our guest bathroom for Lauren since it's right across from her room, but wanted to find somthing that would match the color already on the walls so we don't have to repaint the room (it's kind of a light mossy green). We found a really cute striped pattern and the darker green stripe goes perfectly with the wall color and the pink is so nice an cheery.

Here's the shower curtain...


and here's the matching striped towels. We got the hand towel size and will pick up matching pink bath size towels somewhere else.


The sales clerk sucked me into the matching bath rug...


The non-slip tub appliques just happened to be ladybugs...


After that, we wandered into Gymboree and since we had no gift certificate, went straight to the little sale rack. Check out the adorable things I picked up....

I love this little fleece, hooded poncho and matching velvetly pants. The poncho was regularly $24.50 and we got it for $6.99 and the pants were regular $22 on sale for $6.99. We got size 18-24 months in these.



Check out this little lavender knit dress with the adorable embroidery pattern along the bottom. This was regularly $36 and on sale for $11.99! We got a size 12-18 month in this one.


The last item is just a little onesie, but it's a really pretty light green with mauve, pink and white flowers. This was regular $14.50 on sale for $5.99. They only had this one in 18-24 months.


Also, today I got all the Gymboree outfits I ordered on-line and everything is so adorable, especially the ladybug white, cable hooded sweater...I know several of you ordered this sweater too.

Just for fun...

My hubby cut this out of the paper for me. Gee, wonder if he's trying to tell me something?

I figured everyone addicted to blogging (like me) would get a chuckle out of this.

On-line Shopping Spree...

Well, I jumped on the Gymboree bandwagon and ordered some of their sale items for Lauren. If you type in "Spring1" or "Spring2" as a promotional code you get a discount on top of the sale price.

Here's what I ordered:


And last, but not least...my favorite item...

I love Wednesdays...

I get off work every Wednesday at 12noon, which is why this is my favorite day of the week. I work 7am to 5pm the rest of the week, but Wednesday is my one day with some time to myself. Usually I go shopping, catch up on chores, blog, read, hang out with my furbabies...whatever I want to do.

Today though I had to start my afternoon with a follow-up echocardiogram. I had one back in August because a chest x-ray showed a slight enlargement of the heart. It turns out my heart is not enlarged, but there is some fluid between the heart itself and the outer lining, which is usually like plastic wrap around the heart. Mine, for some reason, has collected some fluid. I'm hoping that the fluid has reduced, because if not they may need to remove it somehow with a needle. I don't even want to think about that right now....yuck! Keep your fingers crossed for me on this one!

I've still been able to save some of the afternoon by catching up on my soap opera, sipping some toffee flavored coffee and hanging with my furbabies.

Addy loves to just sit in the sun and chill...


and Lucy is on constant gecko watch...if one of those little lizards crawls on our back wall, look out!


Yesterday, we got a Valentine's Day card from my friend Jennifer. Check out this card...the heart is filled with different papers folded and stacked. I don't know how she has the patience for this. If I tried it, my card would go flying across the room in no time!


One more thing, check out my new Good Wishes page here.

Good Wish for Gen...

This time, instead of collecting Good Wishes for Lauren, I got to create a Good Wish page for Gen.

I was having a mental block when I first down sat down with the supplies, but finally came up with a design. It's plain and simple, but it's the wish that counts, right?

Secret Pals...

I joined the January 2006 Yahoo DTC Group and we're starting our Secret Pal Gift Exchange this month. I'm really looking forward to getting to know the other families who are also DTC in January and the excitement when everyone's referrals come in later this year.

I created a group blog for our Secret Pals so we can all post about the gifts we receive, share stories, etc. It should be fun later this month when everyone starts posting photos of their gifts.

Chinese Lantern Festival...

We had a really nice time at the FCC AZ Chapter event today. The weather was beautiful with clear blue skies and in the 70's. For me, the highlight of the event was seeing all the children with their families. There were kids of all ages and lots of the little girls were wearing adorable Chinese outfits. Another highlight for me were the vendor tables...China Sprout had a table set up and I picked up my Secret Pal gift there.

The Love Without Boundaries Foundation was there and I had a nice chat with the volunteer at the table, who is waiting for her travel approval for a special needs child and is hoping to be traveling to China in about two months. I splurged and bought their book Love's Journey, which is a beautiful 171 page hard copy book filled with pictures and stories on families who have adopted.


We also got to meet Amy and her hubby. They live close by to us and Amy made a Good Wishes page for Lauren. Amy, thanks for introducing yourself to us...I'm a little shy about that and we may not have met you guys otherwise. Looking forward to seeing you again at Michele's house for the Waiting Families meeting! If you guys want to ride over with us, let me know.

Here's a few pictures from the event...

Cookies Anyone?

I just got done baking and packaging up cookies for the bake sale booth at the AZ Chapter of the FCC. We are having a Chinese New Year/Lantern Festival event tomorrow.

I made Chinese Almond Cookies...


and Peanut Butter Kisses...


Now they are all ready to go for tomorrow.

New Wish...

Check out Lauren's new wish page here.

Missed the Commercials??

Check this out...if you missed the Superbowl commercials, you can see them here listed by the quarter they were aired. Hey, this is the best part of the game so if you missed them, check it out. :)

Wishes anyone?

I just made up some Good Wishes scrapbook packets. If you would like to create a 6" x 6" scrapbook page for Lauren's Good Wishes Book, please e-mail me your address and I'll get a packet out to you. You don't need to be a scrapbooker to create a page...I have quite a few pages from 1st time scrappers.

Check out Lauren's Good Wishes here.

Superbowl commercials...

So, what was your favorite commercial this year? Mine was the Budweiser commercial with the little Clydesdale horse trying to pull the wagon and the two big horses pushing from behind. Very cute.

New dress...

I just couldn't pass on this sweet little dress. The embroidery is just so adorable. I like the little bee buzzing above the flowers.

Lauren's first purse...

My friend and neighbor, Judy, went to San Francisco on business and brought back the cutest little purse for Lauren from Chinatown. It's very fitting that Lauren already has her first purse, because I'm a total purse FANATIC. Forget about shoes, I can't be bothered with them...it's purses I love. My one absolute splurge thing to buy is Coach purses and believe me, I have too many of them (mostly from Coach outlets). We don't have "money" and we don't buy top of the line things, except for my purses. Here's Lauren's 1st purse...