Did somebody say dare???

Ok, Julie, I'm taking your dare and posting a photo of our pantry and I'm raising the bar with a shot of our refrigerator too, just like Lisa did.

Can you tell that I totally have no shame??!! I just opened the door and snapped this photo, as you can tell by the absolute mess going down on the 4th & 5th shelves.

As you can see there is no organization whatsoever. As much as I try to organize, it doesn't take long before it looks like this again. Notice the nice stock of wine and Baileys on the top shelf to help me through this long wait. I've got regular Baileys and the one with caramel...love the stuff in coffee!


Now, here's the bonus shot of the frig. You actually caught me on a day when I have fruit and green stuff (no, not mold) in there.

Just in case you're wondering why there is a bowl of dog food in there, we have to soak Addy's food to soften it before she eats so she can get meals down a little better (she's an old girl).

Well, who's next in taking this dare?? If you're up for the humiliation, post a comment here so we all know to check out your blog. I dare you!!!

Thank you Secret Pal!

The theme for this month's exchange is "Summer is here - fun in the sun" and today we got our gift! Check out our box filled with goodies...Joe was so surprised when I told him there were packages with his name on them too...he got a big smile on his face. Check out the cute card and labels my secret pal made.

Joe got a "World's Greatest Dad" book and an "I love my daddy" bib. The book is perfect because the dad in the book is a master on the grill and so is Joe...also, we don't have any bibs yet. We also got an adorable pink polka dot bikini with little ruffles across the top and a Ty beanie ladybug (I've never seen one of these).

Last, but definitely not least, my favorite part of the gift is the "Playful Patti" doll all decked out for a day on the beach complete with beach ball, tiny towel, and flip flops to match her swimsuit. Isn't she the cutest!!

THANK YOU so much, Secret Pal, once again you made my day (actually, our day)! I can't wait to find out who you are so I can properly thank you. You're the best!

Just booked my flights...

for a trip to met a couple of Blogville buddies!! Soon I will be off to meet Lisa, who is waiting for her daughter Tate, and Julie, who is very close to her referral for Tess.

I can't believe I'm actually doing this because anyone who knows me knows that it's pretty darn out of character for me to fly somewhere by myself to meet people for the first time. First of all I HATE to fly and second of all I'm pretty darn shy and not the most outgoing person you would ever meet. I have a feeling that this will all change the second I step off the plan and meet Lisa, who is a self proclaimed wild child and party girl!

I am soooo looking forward to meeting Lisa and Julie, since we've been cyber chatting for quite a while now and I've been following their blogs since I started this whole adoption process back in August '05. It's amazing how you really do feel connected to cyber pals, especially in a situation like this since we are all going through this waiting game together. Actually, I just thought of something...the timing of this trip is exactly one year from the day I mailed in our adoption application to A Helping Hand...pretty cool!

Oh, by the way, note to Blogville...it's not a real good idea to do a Google search for images of a plane to insert into ones blog when they have a fear of flying. One will instantly be bombarded with images of planes crashing into buildings and planes with gaping holes in them. Oh well, I have a month to forget about that!

I'm so spoiled...

My dear hubby just went to check the mail and look what was in there for me. This is from Lisa of Tate-r-Bug to say thanks for helping her out with her blog.

This adorable Asian "Little People" doll was the infant prize from a McDonald's happy meal...how CUTE is this! She also sent me a Starbucks gift certificate...gee, I guess she figured out from previous posts that I'm totally addicted to my cafe mochas...go figure!

Lisa, this was totally unnecessary, but VERY sweet of you. Thank you so much!

Weekend stuff...

Yesterday evening was our monthly FCC Waiting Families meeting. Our speaker was a women who has two daughters from China...one was 7 months old when they got her and one was 2 years old, and they are both 8 yrs old now (she said lots of people think they're twins). Her hobby since before they got their first daughter is Chinese history and culture and she gave a little presentation on China and spoke about her daughters. She passed around an over-sized, coffee table book called Spectacular China with gorgeous photos of the Chinese country-side. I'm going to order this one for sure.

This morning I actually did something productive and created my wish page to send off to Lisa with a quilt square for Tate's 100 Good Wishes Quilt. This is my first one and I think it turned out really cute, but I decided not to post a photo yet so that Lisa can be surprised when she gets it. Lisa, it's on the way and I hope you like it!

What a great surprise...

I drove up to the house after a LONG, busy week at the office and there was a box at the door. I love getting packages, because it always gives me a little lift.

Well, this particular box contained just about the most adorable scrapbook layout ever from Christie of Keira Joy. We are in the Ladybug Hunters Scrapbook Club and she had my name for our layout exchange. This is our first exchange and the theme is summer fun.

How cute is this layout...all ready for photos of Lauren next summer.

I LOVE all the embellishments she used and how she hung the little labels that spell "summer" from the sparkly fiber. I also love the "rule the pool" sign, because once Lauren hits the pool in an adorable little swim suit, I know she WILL rule the pool!

Christie, thank you so much for creating this special layout for me. This is the first layout waiting for Lauren's photos, so it has a special place in my heart. Now I have to head out and find a special album (oh darn, shopping again) to collect all our exchange pages, and your layout will be at the start of the book.

Also, thank you for the sweet card and such nice words.

New addition...

Can you spot the cute new addition to our backyard?

Yup, you guessed it, it's the cute little ladybug stepping stone. Our friend,Colleen, was in town from Tucson for a job interview and she brought along this little lady for our yard.

Of course I loved it and had to put it in the yard right away to keep my bunnies and turtle company. Thanks again, Colleen.

Father's Day Weekend...

We had a really nice and relaxing weekend. Last night we got together with two other waiting families from our local FCC group, Heather & Damon and Nancy and Brian. We had a nice evening at Heather & Damon's place hanging out by their pool, sipping on frozen margaritas, and we had great Mexican food for dinner. Damon made chicken tortilla soup and a really good green chili rice dish...yum! I got the recipes and will be trying them out soon myself.

Today, we had a nice relaxing breakfast and took our time reading the paper. Our thoughtful furbabies got Joe a card for Father's Day...

They also ordered him something, but UPS was a little late so maybe it will come tomorrow or Tuesday.

I got Joe a really cute father-to-be card that I thought he could relate to since it puts diapering into sports lingo. Since he's a long-time Dodgers fan, I gave him a couple of totally adorable outfits that he can have Lauren wear when he takes her to the game. He loved them both. I can't wait to see Lauren decked out in one of these outfits ready to go to the game with Daddy.

Four Month Anniversary...

Tomorrow is the four-month anniversary of our log in date. I've seen other waiting parents post about this anniversary and had always thought that it was pretty significant, but now that it’s us, it doesn’t feel that significant at all. I think it's because as the wait extends out, the four month mark is less and less of a milestone.

Since we started our application process back in August, it’s actually been a 10 month wait so far, but only four months are counted as “official” waiting months. In reality though, we’ve been waiting for a baby since our first miscarriage back in 1996, so really we’ve been waiting for 10 years!!

Right now referrals are running at 12 months from LID, so if they don’t keep slipping we may see our referral 8 months from now. In this case, we could have Lauren home by next Mother’s Day, possibly traveling in April 2007. If the 12 month wait slips to an 18 month wait as rumored, Lauren gets further and further away from us.

When I look back, it seems like just yesterday we were making the decision to adopt, but when I look ahead it just seems like endless months on the calendar. We actually have plenty to keep busy with for now (projects around the house, the nursery, FCC meetings, Yahoo group exchanges, etc), so I actually try not to focus on the waiting. Instead, I’m focusing on the positive things about the wait like meeting new people through our local FCC, “chatting” with my cyber-friends, and watching other waiting families head to China to meet their babies (seeing the photos and videos really keeps me going). If it weren’t for the support of the adoption community, I have no idea how I would be keeping my sanity through the months ahead.

I’m looking forward to posting that it’s our eight-month anniversary, then hopefully at that point we’ll be four months from referral.

20 minutes...yeah, RIGHT!!

I had decided last week that we would actually cook a few nights this week instead of one of us grabbing something on the way home. We have been eating take out WAY too much lately.

Joannah had mentioned a Weight Watchers' cookbook (Make it in Minutes) that looked pretty good, so I had ordered it from Amazon. It's been laying around the house for a few weeks and I've been flipping through it trying to decide what to try. Well, tonight I made "Zesty Chicken with Shallots, Capers, and Olives" and it was GREAT! We had it over bowtie pasta with some crusty French bread. The recipe makes four servings with 4 WW points per serving (of course this doesn't include the bread and pasta). The recipe is in the 20 minute section, but I think they are assuming that you have your own personal su chef to do all the prep work.

We liked the recipe so much I thought I'd post it for everyone:



Zesty Chicken with Shallots, Capers, and Olives
1 lb thin-sliced skin-less boneless chicken breasts
1 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled (I used more)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
2 tsp olive oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 garlic clove (I used 2)
3 tblsp cider vinegar
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 (14 1/2-ounce) can diced tomatoes, with their juice
5 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped (I used double)
1 tblsp capers, drained
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (it's a must to use fresh)

Sprinkle the chicken with the rosemary, salt, and pepper. Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Saute the chicken until cooked through, about 3 minutes on each side; transfer to a plate. Add the shallots and garlic to the skillet and cook until the shallots are soft, about 1 minute. Stir in the vinegar; continue to cook until the vinegar evaporates, about 30 seconds. Add the wine, tomatoes, olives, and capers. Simmer, uncovered, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 8 minutes. Stir in the basil. Return the chicken to the skillet and cook about 1 minute longer to heat through.

Makes 4 servings, 4 WW points each

Scrapbooking toy...

Ok, Michele...you are a bad influence on me!

At work yesterday I went up to visit her in her office and she told me about this very cool new die cutting machine. It's called the Cricut and it's the latest toy from Provo Craft. Once I took a look at the demonstrations on the website, I was hooked. My birthday is late next month and I think this will be #1 on my list when my dear hubby asks me what I want. Of course, that is if I don't buy it first myself!

If you're a scrapbooker, you'll have to check out the demonstration videos on the website. Julie, I consider you the scrapbook queen, have you seen this in action yet?

Weight and the unknown...

It's been rumored that the CCAA will be making some kind of announcement, but I haven't heard anything yet. There is speculation again that they could be instituting a weight restriction rule and it's unknown whether it would apply to families already LID. This same rumor was floating around months ago and nothing ever materialized.

I didn't think the rumor was really bothering me this time, but I was "chatting" with Lisa yesterday and was telling her about a dream I had on Sunday night...I was going through the mail here at home and there was a letter from the CCAA in the pile (like we would even have a letter from the CCAA). I opened the envelope and the word "weight" caught my attention right away. I dropped the letter before I could read it and when I bent over to pick it up, it was gone. I searched all over the house, and was getting really upset that I couldn't find it. Of course, I woke up before I ever found it. It's amazing how your subconscious can come up with these things....clearly I'm freaked out about this and I think my fear of the unknown is getting the best of me.

Anyone else a little freaked out about what might come out from the CCAA?

New Scrapbook Club

One of the members of my JanDTC Yahoo group, Susan, is starting a new Yahoo Scrapbooking Club. This group is open to anyone in the Chinese Adoption Community and their family and friends. The group will host a monthly swap to exchange themed pages to be used for their children's or family's scrapbooks. Also, it will be a place to exchange ideas, get motivated and share photos of layouts we've created as inspiration for those of us who need it, like me.

You can check out the home page and join here. I hope to see all my fellow scrapbookers in the group!

Chinese Dinner Experiment - Part I

Sunday evening we had a couple of friends over and we all prepared a Chinese dinner. I decided we'd try egg flower soup, garlic chicken, and kung pao beef. There was lots of chopping, slicing, and measuring going on. Here's Linda and Miyoung doing some prep work...


Then the cooking begins...



Miyoung brought over all the ingredients for spring rolls and showed us how to put these together.

Chinese Dinner Experiment - Part II

Joe and I were at IKEA Sunday afternoon and they just happened to have those cool Chinese soup bowls and spoons on the cheap, so we picked them up for the dinner. Also, I had picked up some pretty chopsticks on clearance at PierOne a while back and decided it was time to put those to use.



We had a great time preparing the dishes and a nice, relaxing dinner. If you like Chinese food, you've got to try the egg flower soup and kung pao beef recipes...they are both wonderful! The soup was just as good any restaurant soup and the beef dish was SO good. If you try the beef dish, make sure you get the cut of beef called for in the recipe (flank steak) because it was very tender. I don't really recommend the chicken recipe, it was our least favorite.

We had such a nice evening, I think this needs to be a regular thing.

Weekend Fun - Part I...

I wanted to post some photos from our weekend and it seems I'm trying to download too many photos to fit in one post, so this is in two parts.

On Saturday morning my brother dropped the kids off (Katie, 12; Emily, 9; and Josh, 4) and we took them to lunch and a movie (Over the Hedge is very cute). On the way back home, we stopped at a scrapbook store so the girls could pick out some supplies for our craft project...we made mini-scrapbooks using paper lunch bags (I got the idea from a scrapbook magazine). You fold the bags in half, hole punch them, and use ribbons or fibers to bind them. I helped the girls with the initial assembly of the book and they took it from there. Katie did a "best friends" book to give as a gift and Emily did a book with photos from a Hawaii trip. Considering thier ages they are SO creative and are definitely scrapbook divas in the making. Here they are hard at work...


while Lucy supervises from the doorway...

Here's their finished books along with their favorite layouts...

Weekend Fun - Part II...

After the scrapbooks were done, my mother stopped by and joined us for pizza. Joe ordered the king kahuna of pizzas...the 24" party pizza. The kids got a kick out of how big this thing was...



We had a few food-related challenges with my nephew, but the funniest one was when we served up the pizza. We put his slice in front of him, he took one look at it and promptly announced that he couldn't eat it because it was "broken." We asked him what he meant and he just kept saying it was "broken." Joe and I are looking at each other like this is some secret kid lingo that we just don't understand, but his sisters couldn't even help interpret this one. Finally he said it's "cracked" and started pointing at the spots on the slice that weren't covered with cheese. Well, evidently he's used to those kid friendly pizzas with the thick rubbery cheese covering the entire crust with absolutely no sauce showing through and doesn't know what to do with good pizza. Luckily we had a slice in the box that wasn't "cracked" and a crisis was averted.

After dinner we watched two movies that we picked up earlier at Block Buster. It was a challenge to actually find two acceptable G or PG rated movies that the kids haven't already seen (thanks to NetFlicks), but we settled on The Dust Factory (not very good) and Beethoven (the older movie about he family with the St. Bernard dog...pretty cute). Towards the end of the second movie I'm hearing snoring from the living room, so I sneak in and what do I find...


Yup, Joe is sacked out on the chair at 9:30pm. We had to drag him off the chair so we could get the kids set up to sleep in that room...he was exhausted!

On Sunday, we actually got up and out the door to drop the kids off by about 10am. This was only after another food challenge when we learned that Josh is the only kid on the planet who would refuse to eat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast...you would have thought they were stuffed with broccoli or something! Question for you parents...do you ever actually get to sit down and eat or are all meals eaten while standing up?

When we dropped the kids off, my brother and sister-in-law had a gift for Lauren. Check out this beautiful handmade quilt...


It's so pretty I almost hate to have Lauren use it right away. I'm thinking maybe we'll hang it over the changing table. The quilt stitching is done in heart shapes and the different shades of red and pink are so pretty.

We had a great time with the kids and I think they had a nice time too. We definitely got a reminder though that we'd better REALLY enjoy the rest of this waiting period, because our lives are going to change soon. Not that we don't know this already, but everytime we spend time with the kids it's a reminder to appreciate each other now because our focus is about to change big time!

New Look!

I felt it was time for a change and created this new look for my blog. So far I've only converted over this blog and haven't changed over Lauren's Room Blog or 100 Good Wishes. I figured I'd live with this for a few days until I convert everything else.

So, how do you like it?

Long weekend ahead!

Thank God tomorrow is Friday and we have a nice, long weekend coming! It's been a heck of a week at the office and I'm ready to chill out and have some fun.

I don't know how many of you would consider this fun, but we're having our nieces and nephew over for a sleep-over. On Saturday we'll take them to the movies (I think we're seeing Over the Hedge), lunch, then I'll do some crafting with the girls while Joe and Josh do some male bonding. On Sunday morning we'll have chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (with some fruit on the side for something healthy).

Sunday afternoon we have a couple of friends coming over and we're all going to prepare (and hopefully enjoy) a Chinese dinner. On the menu is egg flower soup, garlic chicken, kung pao beef, rice and dessert. We're eating the main dishes with chopsticks only, so this should be interesting (gee, I hope I get to eat). I'll post some photos if the dishes turn out half way decent.

On Monday we get to relax and hang pool side at our friend, Linda's, house. It will be a busy, but fun weekend! I hope everyone gets a chance to relax and enjoy the holiday!

This and that....

I wanted to post a photo of the apron and handmade card that my friend, Michele, gave me for Mother's Day as a mom-to-be gift. I can't wait to wear this apron while baking chocolate chip cookies (my favorite) with Lauren someday.

Isn't the fabric totally adorable? Thanks again, Michele, that was so sweet! This is my very first official Mother's Day gift!













I had a really nice weekend...Saturday evening was our monthly FCC-AZ Waiting Families meeting. Our scheduled guest speaker was a no show, but we made the best of the evening spending some time in our hostess' nursery checking out her cute baby things (her and her hubby were LID in June, so I think they are the next in our group to travel). On Sunday I met a couple of friends (Heather and Nancy) from the Waiting Families group for an afternoon of scrapbooking at a local scrapbook store. I started a little scrapbook with photos of my secret pal gifts, but I didn't get very far...I'm not very creative, so it takes me a while to come up with ideas. My goal is to get caught up so by the time I get my next gift, I can add each future month as they come.