Happy 2008!!

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Lily Grace and The Guys

Most of you know that if we had been matched with a girl, we planned to name her Lily Grace. That was cool and we had Mya all prepared for that. She made a pretty quick transition to Noah James and is happy to be getting a brother. With that, you'd think that Lily Grace would be forgotten but NO! Lily Grace is everywhere. Mya has made her in to an invisible friend and quite a mischievous friend at that. I imagine she has the same look in her eye as this picture. Sometimes, Mya yells stuff and then explains to me that Lily Grace has done naughty things and needed to be told to stop or whatever the case was. Today, I had to tell Mya that if Lily Grace could not be nice, she could not stick around. LG was just causing all kinds of trouble in the car on the way home from grandma and grandpa's house.

So, you ask, who are "the Guys"? Ohhhhhh. . . let me tell you, they are also imaginary friends that show up at various times during the day. I imagine they are like these naughty gnomes, doing crazy stuff and causing Mya to get in to lots of trouble. This summer, while walking down the driveway, Mya was riding in her Barbie jeep. She looked at me walking beside her and told me that her "guys" were driving their jeeps up behind me and I should move over. I looked right back at her and said they would just have to drive on her other side.

At our house, you just never know when Lily Grace and "the guys" (and sometimes a 2 inch Prince is added to the mix) will be on the scene and demand someones attention or maybe even (or should I say oftentimes) need discipline!!

Christmas Photos

Twas the Day After Christmas and All I could do.

Was heat up the leftovers and serve them to you.

So here are some pictures to look at today.

Hope you can feel the love coming your way.

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Carrie sent Mya a bakers outfit.

Love this shot of the living room with Mya checking out the gifts. The blue background is really neat. I've never had that show up before.

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Here's Mya with her stocking. Then digging through the "loot". I gave her some cereal bowls. Silly mom but she likes those decorated ones from the Target $1 area.

Have A Blessed Holiday!

Traditions

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Carmel corn, Sugar cookies (too lazy to do the roll out kind) and setting up the Nativity.

Special Delivery

Doesn't look too formal but it certainly is. The return paperwork is going out today via overnight UPS. I was going to include a photo of the actual paper but thought it might not be appropriate to do so. So, this will have to do for all of you.

We also got our travel packet. I picked up my leave of absence paperwork too. Things should move along quickly now, especially with the holidays in here.

Have a great day!

Too Good Not to Post

The best Christmas Present-- LOA will come tomorrow. Our Social Worker called this morning. She also emailed an update on his measurements. Sorry, no pix--bummer.

Looks like we will travel mid-Feb, maybe sooner.

Thank the Lord we finally got some news!!

Christmas Program 2007 -- Mya Sheep

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Caught the Varmint

2nd Big Birthday Post!!

Take a Chance--Win an Ipod

Please visit the Hoppes - http://thehappyhoppes.blogspot.com/ - to learn how you can win an Ipod but mostly how you can help bring Paisley home. SO, go over there and check out the details. Part of the money goes to a charity.

UPDATE: GO TO THE HAPPY HOPPES BLOG TO SEE WHO WON THE IPOD!! WAY TO SUPPORT ADOPTION EVERYONE!!

450 POSTS!! Uff Daa!---Apple Eater

Keith says a little varmint ate this apple. What do you think?

Looking Like Christmas Here -- Frosty Trees

Gifts from California (2nd post today)

Today, the doorbell rang and I jumped up, thinking it might be our LOA papers. Nope, it was a package from Leigh Ann at The Wrather Clan --a very nice surprise. She sent Noah these Spiderman items--a web ball and a marvel comics toothbrush with toothpaste --really cool!! Mya was immediately jealous and now wants a marvel comics toothbrush!! That means they are definitely a hit! ~Thanks Leigh Ann.

Happy Birthday Big Brother!!

What better big brother could the girls ask for??

Happy birthday, Joe!!

Cliptomaniac Still Lives

Today we are filling the dump truck with paper scraps.

Perhaps a box of copier paper would be a good Christmas gift!!??!!

Miracle Report

Yesterday, Keith and I went to be refingerprinted. Keith has sever eczema on his hands that flares in the early winter/late spring. It is at its worst right now. When we were being fingerprinted, Keith told the gal that we were adopting from China. Then it was my turn. I had to watch Mya while he was being done because children are not allowed in the fingerprinting area. So, I walk in and take a seat while the gal puts my info in the computer. She tells me that Keith had mentioned our adoption and I told her that we already had a boy waiting and we hoped to travel in Jan/Feb. We discussed the eczema and I asked her how long til we knew about whether they passed or not. She told me Tuesday, they would call to tell us if they were rejected and if we did not hear anything, they were fine. Lo and behold, the phone rings this morning -- Erin answers and gets Keith. Keith come out of his office in shock and surprise because the fingerprinting office called to tell us his prints passed!!!! A miracle on 2 counts--first, they passed; second, the INS called to say they passed!! Praise God!!

Ginger on Watch

I looked out my kitchen window to see this--our little dog, Ginger, watching something. She has caught a few squirrels. So that's probably it. I am just amazed at this little pooch. You may remember we got from Homeward Bound this summer. Her records said she was from Kentucky -- a southern belle. She's kind of a nervous Nelly at times, probably do to abuse, but she is very sweet. She will stay outside until she is too cold to handle it. Then she comes to the patio door and paws at it. When she comes in, there are little ice balls on her paws. She no more than cleans up/warms up and then she spots a squirrel out the patio door and off she goes again to start the process over again.

Decorating Begins

Yesterday Mya asked if she could decorate our trees. I know she meant outside but decided to stop at Wal*Mart to check out the little trees. So, this year I am introducing, Mya's tree. It is a 32" fiber optic tree that cost all of $10. I wanted it small for 2 reasons. First, I don't want it to dwarf the manger. Second, I want Mya to be able to decorate it herself. This morning, I took it our of the box and spread the branches and then called her up from watching "Max and Ruby's Merry Bunny Christmas". I had purchased some styrofoam snowman decorations and she thought that was just the greatest. We also put a string of red bells on it. She was happy with it and didn't seem to need more than a couple minutes of decorating. Her biggest question: where are the presents???

All Over the Map

What do I do when I get home from work at nearly midnight??? Well, sit at this crazy computer, of course! Usually, I check my bloglines list to see who has posted -- tonight there were over 10 on the list that had posted (see sidebar of those of you that I have on my bloglines).

Anyway, another one of my favorite things to do is check my statcounter. I just like to see where folks are from who drop by. I have my friend Katie's IP address labelled as well as Carrie's (my daughter). There are so many of them--one hundred views today! That is a lot for me! So, if you are from Toledo, nice you stopped in. Bethlehem PA, howdy! Saganaw, Royal Oak, Kalamazoo MI--OK, you get it, it's just fun. I would post a map if it would let me copy it. Mom -- I think you are the Wabasso one. I see a hit from Spearfish SD-- Is that Jenny, Carrie's friend??? Hmmm . . . let's not forget Toronto and Quebec. I could be here all night listing the cities. Just know that when you drop by, even if you don't leave a comment, I know you have been here and I appreciate your vitit.

Hey Everyone . . .

There's another man (soon to be daddy) blogging. Go check out Michael's blog. He (and Amy) are looking for some comments on traditions and experiences at Christmas. So, hop over there and see what's going on and notice the great Christmas blog ;).

Surprises in the Mail//More Snow

Mr. Brian sent this beautiful Christmas ornament to me along with a tin of peppermints. I would have taken a picture of the tin but my hubby has taken it to his office. So, Mr. Brian, he has taken his cut of the loot!! Thanks so much for the gift.

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Here are some pics of our snow baby. Mya just

loves the snow. Today she thought she should be able to put on her boots withoug socks. Silly

girl!!

Has she forgotten the cold fingers already??

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Looks like we will have plenty of snow for Christmas. We're supposed to get a couple more inches today. It's pretty to look at but I'm telling you now that the heating blanket goes on the bed today!!

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Happy birthday to my Nephew Duane! His wife and son also have December birthdays--Nicholas celebrates his first BD in a week or so. Have a great month, Duane and family.

Monday Briefing

Gwen at Oatsvall Team has some good news--Maggie slept and is doing much better.

Still no LOA here but we are hopeful that this is the week. Finished "With Eyes Wide Open" yesterday. VERY good preparation for me. Keith still needs to finish it.

Go here to learn more EYES WIDE OPEN and order a copy.

No shopping or decorating done here. I don't usually decorate until after Joe's birthday -- Dec 11. Plus, the church wants to use the manger in the Christmas program. So, don't want to set it all up and take the manger back out. I might get going on it later in the week since I actually have a stretch of time off - Th, Fr, Sa, Su --yep, we're all in shock!

Our walk-in fingerprint session did not work out. So, our Social Worker says just go to our scheduled appt on Friday and if it needs be, we will contact congress for help. Sounds like she may have done that before.

Still working on blogs but mainly Christmas headers. I'm concerned that you all will be looking at those Christmas headers through February! Somehow I think you will tolerate it though, knowing we are in China. Thank you for your support. I will post a counter later today.

Minnesota got about 6 inches of snow on Saturday. Mya is loving it. However, she learned a valueable lesson this morning--keep your mittens on. It really hurts when your fingers get too cold. She has tiny, thin fingers so they were cold in no time at all, especially since she was digging in the snow with bare hands. Bad mom! Lesson learned.

I have started using Blogrolling and Bloglines to keep track of all of you. So far I have 41 blogs listed and will surely be adding more. I'm enjoying looking at all the great posts.

Erin gave baking a try last night. She made banana bread and pumpkin cake. They tasted very good. The bad news--the kitchen was still a BIG mess when I came home from work last night. Guess that's the price I pay for banana bread!!

One last thing for all you who thought I was so ahead by getting those Christmas letters printed and into the envelopes--they are still on the table waiting to be mailed!!

Recipe for a Christmas Letter

Address book - church list - Pingjiang list

Glasses to read the addresses

Stamps and lots of them

Lots of envelopes and Paper

A couple hours to come up with just the right wording, pictures and graphics.

Ink to print both letters and decorative envelopes.

Another couple hours to address all those envelopes.

A very wet tongue to lick the envelopes (aren't we all glad to have sticker type stamps?)

One big rubber band to keep them together and not annoy the mailman.

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Set a date and time when you want to do this. Try to gather your materials in advance. If possible, remove small children from your working space. Then, just sit down and do it. When complete, pop them in to the mailbox and hope to get some in return.

Keep extra of all ingredients just in case you get a card from someone you forgot.