Cabazon outlet mall shopping....

This coming Saturday, my friend Linda and fellow waiting momma, Laura, are heading out for a Cabazon outlet mall turn-around trip. Cabazon is about 1/2 hour outside of Palm Springs and has some great stores including Coach, Brighton, and Crate & Barrel. There are actually two outlet malls side by side (this one and this one) making one GIANT shopping mecca.

If any local AZ mommas would like to join us or if any CA mommas would like to meet us there, just let me know. You can e-mail me at suzieq1@cox.net.

Vegas trip...

Our Disney Summit Waiting Mommas group is planning our next trip and it's Vegas, baby! This is open to waiting mommas, hubbies, family and friends. We are looking at weekends in September/October.


If you're interested at all in joining us, join our Waiting Mommas group here. There is a poll up right now to select the dates.

If you're not a big gambler, don't worry, neither am I. There's PLENTY to do in Vegas besides gambling.

CCAA website....

Has anyone else noticed that the CCAA website has been down all day? Hmmm...wonder what's going on. Has anyone been able to pull it up today?

Strange find update...

Well, here's what you get if you find a nut and a screw in your chocolate chip cookie bag. You get this e-mail reply...

Thank you for contacting us about Keebler® Chips Deluxe® Right Bites™ Chocolate Chip cookies. We are sorry that your experience with this product was unsatisfactory.

A report has been made to our Quality Assurance Department. Our goal is to provide consumers with wholesome, high quality products, and we have established strict control measures for each part of the manufacturing process from the delivery of ingredients to the distribution of finished packages. The information you provided will help ensure that our products and services continue to meet the highest quality standards.

To assist in our investigation, we are sending you prepaid mailing materials to return the sample, UPC symbol, and the part of the package that includes the manufacture code. It will include a DHL Worldwide Express airbill for your use in sending your package to Kellogg. Please call 1-800-225-5345 (1-800-CALL-DHL) and tell the representative that you need to make arrangements for a package pick up at your home. The original copy of the airbill will be yours to keep as your receipt. Once your package is turned over to the DHL Worldwide Express courier, it should arrive at Kellogg within two working days. We hope you will be pleased with your next purchase, and will enclose coupons for you to use the next time you shop.

...and you get a postage paid envelope to mail your find (aka, the evidence) back to them so they can "investigate." Oh, you also get two coupons for a free Kelloggs item at a value up to $5.00.


Wouldn't you think finding a greasy nut and screw would warrant a little more than a form letter apologizing for an "unsatisfactory" product? I would think that steel machinery parts in your cookie bag would surprise them at least a little bit. Makes ya wonder how often this happens, doesn't it?

Too many shoes...

I was at Barnes and Noble the other day and picked up the cutest book for Lauren's collection. She can learn how to tie her shoes with Mr. Spider.



Each page shows a different activity and has a pop up shoe for practicing.


Pretty cute, huh?

Strange find...

I had a little something extra in my 100 calorie pack of chocolate chip cookies...



I ate a few of the cookies, then shook the bag a little and something just didn't seem right. I reached in and pulled out a steel nut. I dumped the bag out and there was a screw in there too! My husband, being the mechanical guy that he is, had to see if they fit together and sure enough they do. I think it was a bad day on the old assembly line over there at Keebler. I can't believe that these parts came loose and both fell at the exact moment that my tiny little cookie bag was passing through.

At least it wasn't a finger or something totally gross like that. I'm going to e-mail Keebler and see if they want their parts back. ;)

I thought this only applied to Vegas...

My friend, Janet, clipped this out for me. She saw it in a magazine while we were in Disney...go figure!

Back from Disney and 14 months down!

We had a fabulous time at Disney! My friends, Jennifer & Christine, and I got in on Friday afternoon and met up with Shelley, Joannah, Janice, Kim, Hayley & Hannah, Lisa, and Michelle for dinner at Mimi's Cafe. It was SO nice to meet everyone and to see Lisa again.

We spent Saturday at Disneyland and Sunday at California Adventure. Both days we were at the parks bright and early and didn't give up until almost closing. We had a great time running around like kids and I loved every minute of it...except of course that Space Mountain ride. Christine and I both were a little green after that one, but everyone else loved it. At least we went...we had thought about chickening out at the last minute, but buckled up instead. We both regretted it in the end.

We had a great bunch of women on this trip! There were nine in our group and we stuck together almost the whole time. Everyone just went with the flow and we all had a lot of fun. Everyone got along great...I think it's that special adoptive momma connection!

Here's a photo slideshow of the trip...



Yesterday was our 14th LIDversary!!! Has it really been this long??

We are currently working on updating our homestudy and getting our I-171H renewed. Who would have ever thought 14 months ago that all these documents would actually expire!

Having fun...

No time to write because we're getting ready for a full day at California Adventure, but I wanted to post a couple of photos from dinner on Friday night and yesterday. Gee, can you guess who's wearing the hat in the photo below?

We made it!

A couple of shots on the airport shuttle bus..


Jennifer

Christine

Lisa and I already got the wi-fi going...

Off to California...

Well, our Waiting Momma's Disneyland trip is finally here. Jennifer, Christine and I catch a flight early this afternoon to LAX. I'm so looking forward to seeing Lisa again and meeting so many new bloggy friends.

I think I'll bring my laptop along since the room is supposed to have complimentary wi-fi. If we get some good pics, I'll try to post over the weekend.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Well, it officially sucks...

Well, it's official...the CCAA only got through two days, yes you read that right, TWO DAYS of LID's over the past month! The rumors of this had been buzzing for a few days now, but I was refusing to actually believe it until I saw it with my own eyes on the CCAA website. Well, there it was today as clear as day. Two lousy days...October 25 and October 26...and that's it.

For us to get our referral this Sept/October time frame, referrals would have had to go through mid-November. There are 113 days from where the CCAA left off until our LID. If they can't even maintain two weeks of LID's each month then we may not have a referral until next year sometime! My head is just reeling right now and at this point it may only be a good cry that will help.

Guess who I met today??

Little Miss Tess!!! Julie and Tess are in town visiting family for Easter so they came by. Julie and I have gotten together a couple of times in the past and I was so excited to meet Tess. She is just as cute as her blog photos and very outgoing and funny.

Nancy and Lily came by and we had a really nice afternoon chatting and playing with the girls. Lily and Tess were born only one day apart, which I think is pretty cool!

With the rumors of a tiny referral batch this month, I really needed some cheering up and these two were just what the doctor ordered. (click image to enlarge)

Addy update and bracelets added...

Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes for Addy! We took her in for an echo cardiogram today and her heart is in better shape than they expected, which is good news. The only downside is that her blood pressure was very high and she is now on a new med to see if they can get it under control. We'll take her in for a blood pressure check in a couple of weeks and see how she's doing on the meds. Hopefully we'll have our old girl with us for a while to come!

On another note, I decided to add a couple of bracelet styles to my Close at Heart jewelry site. One with ladybug beads and one with an Asian flair (the large beads have Asian characters on the back side). If you like them, I have ordering instructions on the site. I'd love to make one for you.

Prayers for Addy...

Please send a prayer this way tonight for Addy. We had to take her to the vet this afternoon because she's been having a terrible time walking on her back legs. Sometimes she limps and then just stands there while she gets up the courage to start moving again. We can tell she's in pain sometimes when she walks.

If you remember, she was diagnosed with cancer back in June 2005 and wasn't expected to survive past the end of 2005, but she's been such a trooper and is still here with us.

While the doctor was checking her out today she discovered that Addy has a really bad heart murmur and irregular heartbeat, so the pain in her legs could either be caused by this or by arthritis. Of course, she can't go on arthritis meds until she has an echocardiogram to check out her heart. We haven't scheduled an echo yet because we want to see what her blood work reveals first.

Please say a little prayer for her...she could use all the good wishes she can get!