Not Much Going On, So Here's Some Kitty Photos

This evening while checking the blogs and rumor queen, Leon was hanging out with me on the chair. I could not help myself, I slowly got up and grabbed the camera! He is such a silly cat! The two of Nikko are from the other day. My old guy looks pretty good for 16yrs huh?

Not much going on, just waiting on referrals to come in. It is rumored that they are on the way, so hopefully we will hear something on Monday. We would need a miracle to make the cut off but I just want to see how far they get. I am prepared for one more month of waiting! For those of you that are a shoe in, you must be ecstatic! I can't wait to see their pretty faces! (Colleen, Alyson, and Dawn)

My Kitty Photo's

You can go to Christie's blog to take a peek at Nikko and Leon plus many other adorable pets. Ms.Christie is very creative, and aged the picture's submitted by several bloggers. I did not have the greatest pics for her to work with, but I think she did a fabulous job! Christie, thanks for taking the time out for us!

Meme

1. Can you cook? Yes, when I want to
2. What was your dream growing up? Anesthesiologist
3. What talent do you wish you had? I love to sing, just wish I could sing really good!
4. Favorite place? The Coast
5. Favorite vegetable? Allen's Green Beans
6. The last book you read? Some goofy romance novel!
7. What zodiac sign are you? Scorpio.
8. Any Tattoos and / or Piercings? 1 Tattoo on ankle and ears are pierced.
9. Worst Habit? I am a nail biter and road rage
10. Do we know each other outside of this blog? No
11. What is your favourite sport? Love to watch women's gymnastics
12. Negative or Optimistic attitude? I am stuck somewhere in the middle.
13. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator? Freak out!
14. Worst thing to ever happen to you? miscarriages, otherwise I have been very fortunate
15. Tell me a weird fact about you: I still sleep with a blanky!
16. Do you have any pets? My felines, Nikko and Leon
17. Do you know how to do the Macarena? Yes
18. What time is it where you are now? 5:00pm should be working on taxes!
19. Do you think clowns are cute or scary? Scary, ever since I saw the movie "poltergeist"
20. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be? A flat tummy and small boobs!
21. What color eyes do you have? Brown.
22. Ever been arrested? No.
23. Bottle or Draft? Beer girl here! Ice cold bottle.
24. If you won $10,000 dollars today, what would you do with it? Hmm...pay bills
25. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew? Don't usually chew bubble gum but the green apple cheap stuff if I have too!
26. Which is your favourite bar to hang at? Don't do the bar scene anymore but we have a local spot called Leon's where we meet friends on occasion. (that's where we got our cat)
27. Do you believe in ghosts? Not really
28. Favourite thing to do in your spare time? Read or sew
29. Do you swear a lot? Boy, am I working on this one.
30. Favorite swear word? Sadly, the F bomb when irritated!
31. Biggest pet peeve? Slow driver's....see 30
32. In one word, how would you describe yourself? devoted

Let me know if you are going to do one of these...I'd love to read it.

Goodies For Karlee

What a fun SURPRISE!!!My friend Krista brought these with her to her nail appointment last week! All kinds of cute gently worn outfits sizes 18mts to 3T for Karlee. I could hardly wait to get home and go though everything! I love them all and can't wait to see Karlee in the little tutu! I sure hope she like dance and gymnastics!

Blogger would not allow me to upload anymore pictures but this is most of the stuff!!! Krista also brought a super cool activity toy thingy that I will upload a picture of in another post. Krista, Thank you so much for all the outfits and toy!

I Thought This Was FUNNY!

You might have to watch a time or two see what all happens at once!


Elastic Band - Funny videos are here

Relay For Life

I will be participating in the Relay for Life April 14-15 in Floresville Texas to raise money for the American Cancer Society. I am really excited about this! It takes place in the evening and you take turns (hence relay)walking til 6 AM in the moring!

In the last few years cancer has taken family and friends. Just last fall, our family friend and neighbor Maria passed away and now her daughter Rita (my old baby sitter) is now battling breast cancer. Then two summers ago cancer took the life of my Uncle Jim. A friend of ours under went a double masectomy last summer and is now doing great!She is only a couple years older than myself and it really hit home.

Sadly, cancer affects us all in some way or another. This is a great cause and if you would like to donate please click on the link highlighted in yellow and it will take you to my personal page! Our team is Hope Floats!

My Lurkers!

For my many clients and dear friends....I know your are lurking! I know you all don't have blogs but you can still comment by clicking on the "comment" under each post. Comment under anonymous and type in the code and that's it! So, Laurie S. Duane outed you and told me you visit my blog often :-)

HAIR

As requested by Magi, here is the new do! This is not the best picture, but you get an idea of the flippy/feather look! I have worn something very similar to this a time or two in the last few years. I only got 3 1/2 inches cut but it felt like much more with all the layers! My stylist was going for Diane Keaton's hair style she wore at last award show(I forget which award). I told him I saw the awards and indeed liked her hair and so this is what I got! I am not one to wear the same hair style for years and years, can't and won't do it! Even though, I am not just crazy about the hair style, it will grow out soon enough and I'll be on to something new! I do however, love my new hair color. I went darker and I got rid of the heavy blonde highlights in the front.

Hallelujah

Today, I received an e-mail from our referral coordinator about our I-171 situation, and I can sleep better now. She basically said not to worry about it too much and if we don't have it by our referral, they will contact the CIS! I also asked her how likely is it that we would be included in the next batch, and she said we could plan on a May referral! I am so fine with that, at least we will know for sure one way or another.

I-171 Drama = Crazy Woman!

I have spent 6 + weeks trying to renew my I-171! We did our home study update in January and what was to take a week turned into 3 weeks. (should have been a sign there) Anyways, once I finally received the update I ran to the post office to mail to the SA CIS office. In my urgent desire to get to the post office, I like an idiot mail everything but the darn money order! The nightmare begins!
I quickly mail another envelope with the money and a note explaining my error. A week later, I receive my homestudy packet with a letter stating to "please resubmit with payment"!!! So I frantically make a copy of money order with note explaining my error and return to post office. Another week or so passes and this is what I get......All my paperwork and the original money order together with a letter stating.......PLEASE RESUBMIT TOGETHER! WTF! Ya, to say I was pissed was an understatement! I am not usually so hateful, but I was wishing the person to burn in hell!! Yes, I realize it was my error to begin with, but come on, how hard is it to process when all the documents were clearly there, after all they mailed everything back to me???? I don't get the laziness of our government!

Anyways, that was last week and I have since remailed everything AGAIN with a very kiss ass letter explaing how very sorry I was for any inconvienences I may have caused their staff blah blah blah! Due to this run around, I am positive it will take months to get our I-171 and it will be our biggest obstacle thus far in the adoption.

The thought that we could be include in this next batch of referrals now scares me! What if we get included? What do I do about the I-171? We now need the extra time. So I am hoping in some way that we don't make the cut and have to wait just a tad bit longer. I have so much to do still....One thing that needs doing is our taxes...yuck!!!!! I now am worried about travel and how to pack and what suitcase to use and how many. I am begining to feel a little overwhelmed and have thought of maybe asking my doctor about medication for temporary anxiety. But the CCAA views that as being psychotic! (maybe wishing someone to burn in hell is ?) I guess it really doesn't matter, we're not likely to adopt again.

VISION UPDATE..... I had my 1 month post op check up and everything is stlll great! I still have 20/20 vision if not a tad bit better! The dryness has even gotten better but Dr. Webb inserted more synthetic plugs anyway so I will be comfy.

MAGI, I am working on a picture of the new hair do! I over exaggeratd when I said 6 inches was cut! It was more like 3 1/2 but it sure felt like much more! I'll get those pic up soon. (hopefullly before you travel)

Have Ya Heard Anything?????

If I had a dime for everytime I heard that this week I swear I would have enough cash to get to china and back and then some! I know folks just are eager to know when it will be our turn but I am beyond tired of explaining this! Tonight, after a few minutes of conversation with my dad, this is what was said.

Dad- I think we need to talk
Me- about what?
Dad- whats going on with China?
Me - well dad we could be next, if not, for sure in May we will have a referral.
Dad- I THINK THEY ARE JERKING YOUR CHAIN!

If you only new my dad! He means well but his delivery needs some work! So I had to go into the whole thing of why it is taking so darn long! I can understand his lack of faith in the system. But I assured him we are using a very reputable agency and we are indeed getting sooooo close! I can understand how it would look to someone on the outside. After all, we have only been saying "we're getting closer" since last summer!

And the other things I have been hearing............wouldn't it have been quicker to adopt domestically? I bet if you would have adopted here you'd have a baby by now! Some people.. Lord help them! I just want to smack them! But I won't even go there!

Hmmm.........

Families with a LID (log in date) up to 10/24 received their referral yesterday. Congratulatons to those families! So what does that mean for us? Good question. I was hoping next month would be our month but like Colleen this month, I too feel we will miss it by just days and see Karlee's little face in May. Then maybe not, but who knows! Apparently, October 31st LID is very large, so will the CCAA make it to Nov 5th? I am not holding my breath. Our agency only has lid's for Oct 26 & 28 left, then its us....... Nov 5th! I am actually okay with one more month to wait for some reason. I guess I have gotten use to it and to be honest I am quite nervous and feel so unprepared!

In this batch of refferals, one couple like us(fairly young, no children) was referred a a 22 mts old toddler when they requested 6-12 old infant and are very dissapointed. My prayers are with them. This is something we have not really discussed. So this afternnon, I brought it to Duane's attention that there is a rare possibility that we too could get referred something quite different from what we requested...... even a boy! It has happened. I can understand the couple for being dissapointed, I would be too, to some degree. After the discussion, Duane and I both agreed we will accept whatever the good Lord refers us! Initally, I don't think I would be as dissappointed in a toddler girl referral than I would be a little boy! Before you bite my head off I am being honest and these are my true feelings. I would love the little boy no doubt but initally, I would be dissapointed. I have waited and dreamed for almost 2 years for a little girl whom I would someday watch dance, play dress up, gymnastics etc etc...! And true enough she may not ever dance or do gymnastics or play dress up! But these are fun dreams I have. I grew up with brothers, so to switch my dreams over to little league, football, dump trucks and muddy hands a feet will take me a few moments to regroup! Little boys are fun and cute as well, my nephew is proof!. When we filled out our request, I told Duane, I did not care boy or girl (I just wanted a baby/child) but he is the one that said he wanted a little girl, a daddy's girl to be exact! The point I am trying to make is that the couple who was referred an older child has every right to be dissapointed. I realize it is much easier to say this than to actually being faced with this situation. But after the intial shock we'd accept the referral and love and cherish that child like no other! That's my .02!

A Gotcha Day Video!

This is for our friends/family to see what gotcha day is like! Hopefully, this will soon be us.