What Did She Say???

A few pictures to begin with...Natalie showing us the cool photo on her cell phone of Ariel. She takes pictures with her phone. Where she learned this, I have no idea. Neither of her parents have a phone that takes pictures...
N & G so sweet. These were taken on Mother's Day.
N & E... G's older sister...both are beauties huh?
Three peas in a pod. These cousins love each other so much. They are too cute together. I hope you girls are always this close!

It's hot today up here in the PNW...like 85 degrees which is a little too hot for moi. 70-75 and I'm a happy girl. Get over 80 and I'm not lovin it anymore. At least it's sunny. And!!! We finally have a place to sit outside and enjoy the weather. We have lived in our home for almost 6 years and have never had a patio table to sit at. We were thinking that we wouldn't be in this house for very long and were holding off really doing much with it. I'm a city girl and currently live in the suburbs. I always thought that we would move back down to the city but that hasn't happend yet and, since having children, I find I like it here. Also, I'm not currently working (which means no cashola to move) and we have made some great friends, etc. so we're thinking that we'll be here for quite some time and will be making some changes. Our backyard needs some serious help. We had a landscape designer out last year and she came up with a beautiful plan for us but it's on hold until the adoption is complete. We'll do little things here and there to start making some changes but the big things will come later.

Most of the weekend we were out looking at patio sets or cleaning out our house in preparation for the big community garage sale coming up on Saturday. I love to purge my life of clutter (which you would never know by visiting our home on any given day, but I try) and it is so liberating to throw it out. Funny how some stuff seems so important at one point in your life and then so easy to get rid of at another. Potty training was hit and miss because we were gone so much. I hadn't anticipated that so it kind of made it difficult. But, we have worked on it this week and today was the first day that she has been in panties all day!!! Yee Haw...I think I see a glimmer of hope!

I also made it out with my mom to some of the family and friends gravesites on Memorial Day. I was surprised to see so many others out as well. I haven't seen that in years past. Oh, we also saw Pirates of the Carribean on Saturday night. It was good. Being the Disney nuts that we are, we love all of the references to the ride throughout the movie. Loved hearing the "dead men tell no tales" at one point. I want to go back...

The title to this post refers to these little gems from N over the weekend... and I quote:

"I'm too pooped to pop" (which she has learned from her book Froggy Goes to Bed - I have never heard her use it in the correct context before...)

While riding in the car and being told that the Dora CD is not to be found...she replies "it's all good in the hood" okay, I was drinking water during that one and it came up and out my nose, I was laughing so hard. Thanks to daddy watching Adult Swim and Robot Chicken for that one...the original quote is "it's all good in the hood baby"..can't wait for her to say that at school or something...nice

While N was in the bathtub...I just had turned off the hair dryer and heard N, in a very matter of fact voice saying, "You have to wash your hair Aladdin...it's really not a big deal.." all while holding her Aladdin doll and shaking her head. Wonder where she came up with that one...lol

15 Before You Are 15

Happy Memorial Day Weekend to everyone. I have always loved this weekend because it feels like the start of summertime and is usually a good weekend for a little road trip. No trip report for us this year... instead I have a list, taken from this article ,of 15 places in America that your children should see before they turn 15.

They are:

Ellis Island Museum, NY
Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC
Colonial Williamsburg, VA
Pearl Harbor, HI
Grand Canyon, AZ
National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis
Redwoods National Park, CA
Monticello, VA
Gettysburg, PA
The Alamo, TX
Ground Zero, NYC
Niagra Falls, NY
Freedom Trail, Boston
Independence Hall, Philadelphia
Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando

You can read a little blurb about each place and find links in the article. I have seen 7 of the 15...Ellis Island, Lincoln Memorial, Colonial Williamsburg, Redwoods National Park, Monticello, Ground Zero, and Independence Hall. I have many ideas to add to this list as well but it's a good start. Fun to think of all the places that our family has yet to discover together....

Looking for ideas for a girls weekend? The same Budget Travel website has a link for girlfriend getaway ideas here.

We'll be home this weekend...I have a Southern Living At Home party tomorrow morning (I'm a consultant) and then going to see Pirates of the Carribean tomorrow night!!! Love Johnny Depp! Sunday and Monday will be preparing for our community garage sale happening next weekend, visiting our local garden nursery, visiting family, and other assorted odds and ends. I have a few mojito recipes I think I'll try to perfect before the heat of summer is upon us...lol

Whatever your plans, have a great weekend!

Edit... I can't believe that I forgot to mention that this is the beginning weekend of the great potty training adventure. Yes, my child is almost 4 and refuses to use the potty. I have heard from everyone not to force the issue but it is coming down to that point. Pretty soon, I'll have to cancel all of her activities because they don't allow 4 year olds with diapers to participate. I have really tried everything from gentle encouragement and reminders to (and this was not a proud parenting moment) threatening to cancel her 4th birthday because "you can't turn 4 years old until you are out of diapers - they don't allow it" said the exasperated mommy...granted it is 4 months away but she is looking forward to it. So, with advice and encouragement from N's preschool teacher (this is her special ed preschool teacher- not the community preschool she won't be allowed into come September and no days of the week undie wearing) we will commence this weekend with the ceremonial removing of the diaper drawer and replace it with all of the special undies that I have been purchasing (with the hopes that the idea of being able to plaster Dora and Cinderella across her little fanny would be plenty of encouragement to drop her pull-ups and claim her time on the toiddy). Sigh...this is one of the reasons we're sticking around this weekend. We're going cold turkey and need to be near the potty at all times. Thankfully, or maybe not...I don't know..we got rid of our carpet this year and installed laminate flooring everywhere. Wish us luck!

What Do You Think?

I first saw this mentioned on this blog and have a similar reaction... could be a great show...but I don't know if I would have let my kids do it. It looks like it ultimately could have a great message and I like the fact that no one is booted off but leaves by their choice. I wonder how many of the parents of those kids will see themselves in their kids reactions to others. I love the little girl who says (with the best mom look ever) "even when you did have a job you didn't really do it" with that look I'm sure she's seen a hundred times herself. Too funny!! Starts in the fall on CBS... I know I just said I'm happy to get unplugged for the summer and then next post- already looking to see what's on next season. I need help...lol

Relaxed...Recharged...Odds & Ends

This is a heavy picture entry today but I had to post some of the scenery from our recent weekend adventure. I took over 235 pictures and it was hard to choose which few to post. We stayed in the lodge at the Lakedale Resort on San Juan Island. Wow, what an amazing place!!! For good reason, it was named by the Fine Living Channel in 2006 as one of the top 10 places for a romantic getaway. We got a great deal on it at our neices' school auction last year. Now we're going to have to go back and pay full price to make it an annual event. My goal this summer is to get another blog up and running that is more to do with travel and other adventures. I'll be posting more detailed info there, for those that are interested, on this place and others. More deatails to come soon! For now, enjoy the picutres...

On the ferry going to San Juan Island. We lucked out weather wise. It looked like rain on the way over but actually cleared up a bit and was fairly nice for most of the rest of the weekend. It didn't rain until the last day when we were headed home.
Looking outside from our room. Each room has a fireplace and HUGE jetted tub. Kids under 16 aren't allowed in the lodge so it's very quiet...
View from standing on our balcony...Ahhh... Just looking at this picture makes me relaxed. Can you picture yourself here on a beautiful evening with a glass of wine in hand? Feels good doesn't it?


We witnessed some amazing sunsets. Nothing has been done to enhance the color of this picture. It really looked like the sky was on fire.
This was just before the sun set...
This was funny because on our first evening we went out to eat and were headed into the restaurant when we realized that we could acutally sit in the bar. We ate dinner in the bar just to celebrate that fact...



Driving on the west side of the Island just south of Lime Kiln State park. Vancouver Island is off to the left. It's a good place to see whales and other sea life. The resident pod of whales weren't in the area that day. I was so bummed because I wanted to see the baby that was recently born. The best time to see the whales is later in the summer. Now we have an excuse to go back this summer.
More lovely scenery...

Inside the lodge... The fireplace is outside on the deck as well.



I was trying out a new camera so i have lots of shots trying out different settings and distances etc. I thought this picutre of the peonies turned out cool. One of my favorite flowers...hint hint honey :o)
Light house at Lime Kiln State Park. This was our third trip there to see if we could see the whales.
A beach at "American Camp". The British and Americans both had military camps on the island before the American/Canadian border was determined. It was an amicable arrangement that almost went awry when a British pig wandered onto an American settler's land and was shot and killed. It was eventually settled and the border dispute resolved. The soldiers had quite the view.

Meet Mona the camel. She was rescued from a petting zoo somewhere. She loves to be fed apples. I can't recall having ever seen a camel in person before. She is quite the character... not to mention roadside attraction

Another shot from playing around with the different settings on my camera.


My honey got his 100th geocaching find on this trip. Not acquainted with the wonderful world of geocaching yet? Read here for more. In a nutshell, you use a GPS unit and satellite coordinates to find something that has been hidden. Once found, you notate all of your info in a logbook. It's a fun family activity...sometimes it can be a bit annoying when any event you have planned has to include a stop off to find a new geocache..but for the most part it's fun. Tee Hee...

That's all the photos I have for now. Like I said I have tons more and will post more on my travel site when it's up and running. We are blessed up here in the Pacific Northwest to have so much natural beauty. In one day, you can visit some pretty majestic mountains, the Pacific Ocean, islands, wine-regions...I could go on and on. We had a fantastic time and vow to go away together at least once a year. No more of this three year business...

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Other little bits of info. I found this article this morning on my DTC Yahoo group. It's about uprisings in China over population control.

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Check out Love Without Boundaries fundraising auction. There is only one day left...sorry I meant to post about this before. But check it out for some amazing items to purchase. All proceeds go towards helping orphaned children in China. If you can't help out via the auction then check out their site for other ways to help. They are an amazing organization of individual volunteers trying to make a difference.
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That's it for now peeps....I'm excited to go "unplugged" this week as most of the shows I watch are ending or have come to an end. Anyone watch 24? I wasn't too excited by the ending this year. Anyways, it's time to unplug and get outside, get projects completed, go camping, take long evening walks...can't wait!

Happy One Month To Us

I've seen others do this on their blogs and think it's a fun way to keep track of it all. Happy 1 month LID to us. I know many more to go...but I'm one month closer!

Okay....Here I Am

Thank you to those that checked in or emailed to lend your support. I'm feeling much better now and things are looking up.

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Update:

Hubby and daughter on the mend... two thumbs up!!

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We signed up for the waiting child program with our agency...wait and see. We now are officially on the waiting list of the waiting child program with our adoption agency. Occasionally, our agency will get referrals with pictures and info of children in China's waiting child program. Typically, these children are a little older and may have some type of physical impairment or other disability. We have chosen to do this for a multitude of reasons which I think I'll talk about in another post. We're excited and hopeful that we will be matched with a child soon.

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Hubby and I are going away for our first weekend away together in THREE YEARS!! Long overdue I tell you and much anticipated. I'm nervous about leaving N but it's just something that needs to happen for the well-being of everyone in the family. Time to rest, recharge, and reconnect. I'll post a trip report and pics next week.

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I like the picture above...it looks so peaceful. I am can imagine riding my bike or taking a long summer's evening walk here. Hoping this weekend will be filled with moments like these.

I've Got The Post Vacation, Adoption Wait Time Blues...doo.doo.do.doo.doo.do.doo

Warning... Warning...Flashing lights...red sirens.............You are about to enter the "negativity zone"...you're still here? Don't say you haven't been warned...

This week sucks!!! Is there something in the air? This morning, I was reading this post and I couldn't agree more. Okay, so I'm tired, my daughter has been sick this week (poor baby...) and has kept us up every night (poor us...) I've been stuck in this house and have read way too many blogs and rumour websites about the adoption wait times. I spent all day Tuesday stuck in traffic driving daughter to and from dr. and then myself back down I-5 to crappy Brownie meeting (I'm co-leader - we told the girls that we aren't going to the group campout) and then back up I-5 to wait in line at the pharmacy and deal with the crabby staff. Even my husband has been crabby. You know it's bad if my always positive, never will argue with me, always-looking-at-the-bright-side -of-things honey is crabby. Not to mention I'm coming off of my post-Disney high.... I'm feeling blah...

I'm especially feeling it regarding the whole wait time thing. When we signed up for this adventure again back in December, I knew that the wait would be longer than it was the first time around. Last time, we signed up with our agency on July 3rd of 2003 and had our daughter in our arms on August 2nd of 2004. I thought that was a long wait...little did I know how long the wait acutally could be. In December, I was thinking about 16-18 months and then added a few extra months in my mind and on the conservative side of things thought that we would be in China in Fall 2008. Now it appears that the wait time has skyrocketed from 18 months to a possible three year, that's 36 month, wait or more. That means travel in 2010?!!?? How does that happen so quickly?

Now I know, dear reader, that I should not be swayed so easily by rumour sites. You're thinking, "Didn't your mother ever teach you not to surf the net when you're feeling down?" Because you know it's out there if you want to find it. But this isn't like the time that I convinced myself that my bruise that wouldn't go away was a rare blood disease or when I went looking for more info on something and was convinced that I had lupus or some other life altering problem. This time there are plenty of cold, hard, facts out there to support many of the rumours swirling about. The only good news, and I'm taking a few steps back from the edge now(because the eternal optimist in me is dying to come out and play again), is that no one can predict the future. Sure, all indicators appear to point towards an increased waiting period, but we have no idea how the new rules will effect processing times. We have no idea of how many people have decided (unfortunately) to back out of the China program now (since the wait has been so long) and what, if any, effect that may have on wait times. We have no idea how China will respond to increased wait times or if they will at all. We just don't know....and we have no control over the majority of it. It could get even longer, or it could speed up. I do wonder what I will do if it acutally gets to be a three year wait. N will be almost 7 years old at that point. Will I really want to start over then? Would the girls even have a close relationship with that much of an age difference? The thought of it, quite frankly, scares the hell out of me.

I guess the best I can do at this point is to just let go of it all...What is that Serenity prayer...? Let me control what I can and let go of what I can't? I'll deal with it when I get there... Hopefully, miss N will be feeling better and we can get outside today...maybe I'll quit trolling the internet for bad news and clean the house or something? Get the calender out and plan our summer fun and vacation....and woo hoo... I get to go to the dentist today to have my teeth cleaned!!! I really have been stuck in this house a little too long. If all else fails, I'll just go here again and watch videos. Another warning... it's Will Ferrell and his brand of humour...the easily offended may not want to watch. Gave me a good laugh though yesterday. What does that say about me? hmmm...

Thanks for listening and for helping me to talk it out. I feel better.

In Other News...

Actually, the best news... We are officially LID as of 4/16/07. This means that China has officially logged in our dossier with the CCAA and the clock officially has begun to tick. When referrals are sent, what waiting parents want to see is what LID dates are included. That is what is currently so painful as only two days worth of LID's are being sent out right now. The LID dates do not mean that those dossiers were received on those days. We know ours was received on 4/6 but it wasn't logged in until 4/16 so we won't get our referral until they match all of the dossiers logged in that day...in about...oh say...two...short..years from now.

I'm Back!!

Hello Bloggie Friends...did you miss me? All two of you that check this blog? lol... Much has happnend since I last posted so I'll give a brief update. As you can see, we have returned from Disneyland and I have posted some random photos. We had such a fantastic time. There is nothing cuter in the world than watching three-three year old girls-realizing their wildest three year old dreams and meeting their favorite princesses. It was too precious. Our friends were great travel partners and we think that we have converted them into disney nuts like us. So here is a pic of N with goofy. He was waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel.

I guess i can see now why we are always asked if they are triplets? The swimsuits were not planned by the way...

Such good friends....

The highlight of the trip was finally meeting Cinderella. If you haven't been to Disneyland for some time, you will be surprised to know that the princesses aren't roaming around DL anymore. The only place that you can see them is at the new Princess Fantasy Faire or at various character meals. The Faire is cute but it's extremely crowded and everytime we were there, the wait to meet the princesses was over an hour and a half. We had done a princess dinner so had seen most of the princesses but Cinderella was not there...how can you have a princess dinner and not include miss C? She is the queen of them all, really. So by day three we hadn't seen miss C yet and the girls were running out of patience. Our salvation came in the form of a hostess at Goofys kitchen named Pam. We had a scheduled character breakfast at Goofy's kitchen. In the 5 or 6 times that I have had breakfast there, I have never seen a princess so was not expecting to see one there, let alone Cinderella. We were greeted by this bubbly woman who I thought must have just come out of new employee training or something because I have never met a cast member quite so cheerful and full of Disney spirit. Outside of DL I might have thought that she was slightly "touched" as she kind of had that glazed eye look with perma grin on her face and an unnaturally high voice. She was nice though and, as you'll see, she was very kind to us. She gave us the low down on what was happening that morning and who was there...Goofy (of course) Chip and Dale (yawn...we always see chip and dale), Aladin (hmmm...that will be interesting, never seen him) Balou (usually see him) and Cinderella...WHAT??!! The heavens parted and brilliant light shone down upon us. Cinderella? We told Pam our story and how disappointed the girls have been not seeing C yet. Oh yes, Pam assured us, she would be here shortly as she is going to sing happy birthday to the little girl next to us. Oh my, we could hardly contain ourselves. J and I were doing high fives as we had promised the girls that we would stand in line that day, no matter how long it took, to meet the divine miss C. Well, after about an hour we had finished breakfast and the little girl next to us had come and gone with no singing Cinderella. Pam came back to check on us and we told her no C yet and really not many other characters either. Well, Pam was not going to let us out of that restaurant without making some dreams come true. She came back five minutes later and said that C was on a break at the castle but that she would be back in three minutes and head right back to our table. In the meantime, all the characters made their way back to us and we had so much fun with them. Goofy scared the hell out of me, but that's another story. About 10 more minutes go by and Pam comes back again. No C yet, she says she'll check again. The girls have lost it at this point and are rolling around on the floor, climbing on the booth, the usual. Pam comes back to say that she has now gotten management involved and they are going to make sure this happens. Okay, I'm starting to prepare myself for the inevitable 2 hour wait in the sun at the princess faire, wondering if I have enough sun block on, when I hear a low murmur developing behind us that cresendos into shrieks of delight. I stand up and see this beautiful vision of blue fluff floating over to our table. Woo Hoo!!! We are saved...more high fives around the table and then the paparazzi in us takes over. In the end, there were no great pics of the girls with Cinderella, but at least we'll have the memory and the girls' trip was complete in their minds. At the very beginning of breakfast, Pam had asked us if we had been there before. We told her that three of us had but J, M, and the girls hadn't yet. She told us that gratuity was already included in the bill. After Pam delivered with Cinderella, J slipped her a $10 and thanked her for her help. She smiled and with a wink said "so you really have been here before haven't you?" I thought that was funny...

I love this picture and wish I had made it a little bigger. It's so neat to see the statue of Walt with the castle behind him...the sun setting... It's always so amazing to me, and inspirational really, to think of how this one person's dream came to life like this. Much bigger than he probably ever conceived of, but that's the power of dreaming and having passion about something. It really is a magical place...it's palpable when you are there. I know for some, it's too hot or two crowded. But if you let yourself go and really open yourself up to the possibilities of fun, look for the magic, you'll find it and have an amazing time. It's a sad thing that happens to us adults...we get caught up in the day to day demands of life and lose sight of the magic that surrounds us every day. I love being a parent of a three year old just for this reason. I feel like I'm finally learning what life really is about. She reminds me everyday of how life is supposed to be fun and silly and magical. She can pick up a leaf or look for a rock on a walk and really look at it and examine it and ask questions. That's magical. She can make up a silly song on the spot and giggle with delight over the smallest things. She shows me that it's okay to color outside of the lines, get dirty, and make a mess of things. You're not really experiencing life otherwise... Here's hoping that we all can slow down today and look for the magic happening all around us.