Halloween

The doorbell rang twice tonight, just twice. Maybe 10 kids in all. All I can think of is how when I was a kid we went trick or treating with pillowcases. No grocery bag, or puny plastic pumpkin, it was a pillowcase. I wouldn't even be surprised to find out that my brother used a king sized pillowcase. Of course we always ended up with either a belly ache or in a sugar coma but what a small price to pay for all that chocolate and other various goodies? So my question is halloween better now with kids attending organized parties or back in (my) good ole' days when we went out unchaperoned and the flashlight we promised we'd use thrown in the bottom of our pillowcase? Trick or treaters I'm sure they get less belly aches but are they missing out on the adventure and freedom of what halloween used to be?

Obviously no word about Annie this week. I mean would I really be standing on my soapbox pondering Halloween old and new, if I had heard??? It's the end of day 34 in the I-600 approval wait. Darn Columbus Day, I forgot to omit it in my count last week, I didn't get the day off and in "my world" that means a holiday it is not.

PS Leftover candy and Weight Watchers, an oxymoron?

Hello USA

Are you ready for me?

Packratalga

Packratalga - usually a heredity disease most severe in cases where both parents are suffers. However, some cases have been diagnosed in patients where heredity does not appear to be a factor. Most common symptoms - full closets, stacks of papers in numerous locations and in more severe cases, the inability to park one's car in the garage due to stored items the sufferer feels that they "just might need someday". Incurable and the severity often increases with age. Treatment, none although in rare case symptoms may be temporarily relieved by sending a victim away for the weekend and CLEANING HOUSE.

Yep, that's me. I have clothes I'll probably never wear again but if you ask me "yes, I'm definitely going to wear them", books, a lot of books, that if I wait long enough I'll forget "who dun it" and recipes that use ingredients I don't even like.

Anyone know how to induce the urge to "nest" in adoptive moms?

Bad Hair Day

Okay on us, it would be a bad hair day, on Annie it's just plain cute.

Voting

Finished voting this evening, put two, count them two stamps on the absentee voter envelope and it's ready to go in the mail tomorrow. My vote will count, I will have a say.

Now I know what you are thinking and no I'm not talking about Dancing with the Stars. I'm talking about voting to end all of the those dang ads that end with "I'm Joe Politician and I approved this ad".

See US government I vote too!

Annie's Day

[it should be noted that I'm feeling a (little) cranky today, had breakfast at my favorite hole in the wall and my stomach wasn't into it, so 'cuse the attitude. Also I realize that this blog is supposed to be about Annie and I will do my best to oblige but it's kind of difficult when she's on the other side of the planet from me. Yep there's the attitude again.]

Annie's Day
- Got out of the crib, but not for long enough
- Held and loved by the nannies, but there are too many kids and not enough nannies
- Had some food, but she's so tiny she probably could and should have eaten more

Please don't get me wrong, from what I've heard the orphanage Annie lives in is clean, music is played and I'm sure they do as much as possible with their limited funds. I'm also confident that the nannies give 110% and are giving all of the babies some of their time but the kicker for me is that she's in a METAL crib, I've only once seen pictures of her with any kind of toy nor have I ever seen her with anything that she can snuggle with. LET ME BRING HER HOME. She's been in an orphanage for almost a year now (and prior to that a hospital), she's never experience any kind of home life, people have come and gone in her life and it's time that ended for her.

So US government, I pay my taxes, I contribute to the betterment of society by working for a school district, I even recycle, I drive slower than my mom in order to save gas, what do you say, let's just wrap up whatever you are doing in Vietnam and send me the e-mail that will either make me jump for joy or cry like a baby with joy? Please?

PS To my new cyper pal from New York "G", I'll post pictures of the nursery in the next day or so.

Weight Watchers (again)

First off let me say that my mom is a skinny-mini, I am not (yes mom I know you don't consider yourself a skinny mini but you are wrong, you are, always have been, always will be now get a hobby). My dad snacks his way through the day, I can not. Hello, where is the justice in that??

Any who, I digress as this is not meant to be a post about about the fact that my parents did not pass on their awesome metabolisms, this is about weight watchers. For those who have never had to diet, please go eat snacks with my dad, the rest of us know what dieting is about. It's not fun, it's frustrating and did I mention it's really no fun? Truly weight watchers works, I've successfully lost weight on weight watchers twice I've just never figured out how to keep it off. And I think I've finally figured it out, I'm a completer (also a consolidator but I'll cover that another day, poor Annie what a mom she's getting). I'm not a person who goes on journeys. I set out to do something and I get it done, I needed to lose weight, because really aren't the buttons on pants meant to be buttoned and not just covered with a long shirt? So I lost the weight, then woo hoo I was done, finished, checked that project off my list. Did I mention what gift I got myself for losing the weight? Yes being the logical person that I am, I got tivo! Love, love, love the tivo. Add the tivo to eating like I did before (don't forget my true "love" for veggies) and a very comfortable couch and you can see where this is going. Of course, being the achiever that I am I gained it all back plus another ten. Take two on weight watchers, lost the original ten, plus half of my original loss and then [insert ominous music] ...yeah adopting is stressful. Adopting from Vietnam is even more stressful. Ice cream is good, cookies are good and still there's the couch. So here it is almost the end of October and it's time to try again. I know that the next couple of months are going to be an "adventure" so I'm trying to keep my expectations low but if I don't lose some weight I'll be alternating between two pair of pants all winter because I'm not buying any more clothes in "that" size ever again.

I even have a great leader at my local weight watchers, in fact today she came dressed in superman pajamas because she said that with the week she was having, she needed some superpowers. Can you see why I like this woman? Heck, I'd share brownies with this her and I don't share my chocolate with many people.

So it's weight watchers......again....

PS Happy Birthday Daddy!

Things Annie's better off not knowing....

1. Trust me, I'd do anything to take your nap for you. I'm a sleeper and dang it I'm good at it.
2. There are a lot of vegetables that I just plain don't like. So please don't notice that on some nights the dog is much happier sitting under my chair than yours.
3. Although I'm going to encourage you to try new things, your mommy is a chicken and even now won't do some of the things I'm trying to get you to do.
4. I had PB & J just about every day in elementary school. Once in a while your grandma would convince me to try something else, I was almost always disappointed.
5. Since I'm a true blue accountant and have all of the quirks that go with it, I will have a hard time watching you not stay in the lines when you color. However, I'll do my best to not offer to "help".
6. Yes, I will have you make your own bed when you are old enough but frankly I still don't see the point.
7. I do not have a sense of direction, so please be open to taking the "scenic" route from time to time.
8. I love you more than you'll ever know, so saying no is going to be hard, please don't push it and never ever learn how to do boo-boo lip, I'm a sucker for it.

Day 30 and counting

So today is day 30 of my wait for the oh so important I-600 approval. Not that I was expecting a quick approval, but really I would have been okay with being wrong for once. The nursery is done, mentally I'm ready to say goodbye to my current life and gleefully start a new one. Today I started my travel vaccines and all I have to say is OUCH. I swore I'd never get another tetanus shot unless I stepped on a nail, and there I was sitting in the doctor's office asking for one. Of course while I was there, my Dr told me it was time to get a mammogram and they had just opened up a walk in clinic for them in the same building. In fact, it's usually very quiet on Friday afternoons so I should just scoot right down there after I get stabbed a few times with needles. Hmmmm, it's late afternoon on a Friday so it's either margaritas for TGIF or a mammogram?? Tough decision. Care to guess which won out? Yep, I headed to the walk-in clinic. However, I must say I was extremely pleased to be told that there was at least a 60 minute wait. So with a smile, I told them I'd return another day. Hey the waiting room didn't even have any old National Geographics. :-)

PS For those of you not familiar with adopt-speak, we only count business days when speaking of how long the wait has been for I-600 approval (i.e. the last mountain that must be climbed before I get the go ahead to travel).

Pieces of my heart...

Annie Mai


My beau, yep he's a keeper...


Mia aka Bob BARKer

Lacey, rest in peace my snuggler