Lazy days.......

Not a whole lot going on here....we had a lazy weekend and got caught up on our rest and housework.

Friday after my drug-shopping adventure (see previous post)I went to the local high school football game. Kolin was making his debut performance as a member of his boy scout troops honor guard. This is made up of about 8 boys who present the flags of the branches of the military as well as the Texas and US flag at different events.

I have not been to a high school football game in a long time. Man, those memories come rushing back. There is just nothing like Texas high school football. Even though our team lost we had a great time. Not only did I enjoy the game, I enjoyed the people watching. Looking at all those teenagers and thinking "did I act that goofy at that age?" Yep, I probably did!!


Kolin sitting in the school library before they marched onto the field. Doesn't he look sharp??

It was in the low 50's here Friday night and combined with the wind chill it made for a cold evening. We were all bundled up in the stands.


Kelby, red nose and all, trying to stay warm during the game.

Saturday I had a movie fest, I watched both Click and Poseidon. Click starred Adam Sandler and even though I am not a big fan of his I really enjoyed this movie. It made you really think about slowing down and enjoying life as it is happening. Poseidon was okay, I never saw the original but this version did have great special effects.

I forgot to mention that Thursday night after Kelby's football game Paul and I had date night. We went to the Studio Movie Grill, which is a movie theater that is also a restaurant. Your food is served and you eat while watching the movie. How cool is that? We saw "Flicka" starring Tim McGraw. It is an excellent movie but be warned: bring your tissues. It is a tear-jerker.

The rest of the weekend was spent running errands, a little scrapbooking, reading, and just chilling out.

I wanted to included this last picture because I thought it was just too darn cute. Whenever I am in the office/guestroom working on the computer Rowdy comes in and goes to sleep on the bed. Last night I captured this picture.


Have you ever seen a cuter dog?????

Thanks for checking in.......and also be on alert referrals "should" come this week. Let's all say a little prayer that the CCAA makes great strides this month.

Drugs anyone??

Feast your eyes on my $106 purchase at Target this afternoon. Impressed??? I better explain before you go calling the cops on me. I participate in a healthcare spending account through my employer. Pre-tax money is taken out of check each week and put into a special fund for healthcare purchases. It covers everything from dr visits, presciptions, vision care, otc meds, etc. Well the catch to this type of account is that if you do not use the money by Dec 31, you lose it. That's right, my money that I earned being forfeited. Paul and I were both blessed this year that we have only been to the doctor a few times and needed few prescription meds. Just out of curiousity I checked my account balance this week and found out that I had $275 that needed to be spent. I am very frugal and was not about the forfeit one penny so off to Target I went. In addition to the normal meds you may have around the house I went ahead and purchased the meds I thought we might need for China (don't worry I checked the expiration dates). Now, Miss Avery is the proud owner of Tylenol and Motrin (both infant and children's), Orajel, Butt Paste, mylicon drops, a digital thermometer, and Strawberry Shortcake band aids. Paul and I were treated to eye drops for the plane, Immodium (no explanation necessary), cold medicines, tums, and several other goodies.

You should have seen the looks I got while wandering around the pharmacy aisles filling my basket with a little of this and that. If anyone out there has any suggestions about other children's meds I might need, feel free to send them this way.

So, what did you do with your Friday afternoon?

Dinner with the family

What happens when you mix your biological family with your Great Wall family for dinner and socializing??????

A great time is had by all!!!!!!!!

This past Saturday we had that opportunity. Paul and I get together with other Great Wall families every couple of months and this time several of the couples invited their parents along for the fun. Paul parents were both working but my parents were able to attend. My parents thought it was a great way to get to actually meet the people they hear me talk about so often. I think dad spent the entire night starting at Mollianne, Mia, and Emily. Don't worry dad, we will have Avery home before you know it.

Now on to the pictures of the night.

Bob, Don and Judy (Kelley's parents), and Chuck

Anton, Barbara (Erin's mom), Gary, Erin, and Christie

Okay, why is my table the crazy bunch???? Valerie, my dad, Jamie, and Matt (my mom and Paul are hiding somewhere behind Jamie)

Kim and Bobby, Mary Jane and JD (Teresa's parents), Teresa and David, Tim and Daneen

And last but certainly not least:
Kelley - she wouldn't let me take a picture of her new stylin' tennis shoes so go on over to her blog and read the saga of the shoes.

Huge thanks go out to Teresa and David for allowing us to congregate in their wonderful historic home.

Erin, feel free to steal these pics and correct me on any of the names!!

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

How could I forget????

Well, I did not really forget the date, I just forgot to post it yesterday. Yesterday marked the 10 month anniversary of our Log In Date. At this point we know we have made it through review with no questions asked (answered prayer) and now we are in the line in the matching room. Many people have asked me lately why the process slowed down. Of course I cannot answer that question but I have gotten in the habit of saying, "It's like when I go to Wal-Mart, whatever line I pick suddenly starts moving the slowest. Well, we picked China and thus they slowed down!!" Sorry to all the people in line behind me!!

Hey but it is uplifting to see that we are now in the double digits. At this point we will take whatever little milestones we can get. So Happy 10 months to us!!!!!!!!!!!

I have "officially" started my Christmas Shopping..

With Christmas a mere two months away, I finally bit the bullet and began my shopping. Normally, I would be way over half way done by this point, but after looking at my shopping habits for the past few years I have decided that doing it early doesn't mean I save money. It just means people get a lot more gifts because I keep shopping all the way to Christmas. Yesterday I made my first purchase for Christmas '06. Let the fun begin!!!!

Just so you know I AM one of those psycho people that get up at 3am the day after Thanksgiving to go grab those great bargains. Thanksgiving Day around here means eating until you are on the verge of puking, watching the Cowboys play, combing through the newspaper ads to see what is available, making a priority list (we call it the "game plan") and then sometimes even sleeping in our clothes so that when the alarm goes off at 3am we can just jump in the car and leave. Do they make medicine for this kind of behavior??????

The week in review

Wow, what a week it has been! Since I last posted mom and I came home from OKC rested, renewed, and revitalized. The second day of the Women of Faith conference was amazing. We definitely want to go again next year.

While we were there we went by a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and I found this fabulous doll for Avery. I have been on the lookout for this doll after seeing it at Valerie's house. I have not been able to find it anywhere (even the internet) and surprisingly we found it in OKC. It was the only Mulan they had. We lucked out!!

The wonderful doll we found for Avery in Oklahoma City.


Sunday I woke up with a horrible cough and just generally feeling crappy. I went ahead and went to work Sunday night and spent the night coughing so bad I thought I might hack up a lung at any time. Glad to say that did not happen. :)

Monday night we were going to be overstaffed at work so I volunteered to stay home. Very good move on my part.

Tuesday, Paul and I were to leave to go camping with his mom and dad, and grandparents. I decided I could lay around the travel trailer just as well as I could lay around at home so off we went. Usually when we go camping I take tons of scrapbooking stuff or other activities to keep me busy. This time I decided since I was "under the weather" that I would take nothing but a couple of movies and books and spend the time actually resting. It was great!! All three days consisted of sleeping (alot), reading (alot), visiting, game-playing, and other low key activities.

Wednesday we did get the water toys out for one last day of fun before fall really sets in. Yep, just what I needed while nursing my cough: go into the cool water and play. You may have heard, we nurses make horrible patients.

Here are some pics from our camping trip:


Does this family need a baby or what? Right now we just have the dog to spoil and sometimes this means even fixing Rowdy his own plate at dinner.


Yep, that's me riding the waves in the middle of October


Paul and I snuggle up for this self-taken picture.


Sandra and Grammy going for a ride


Getting ready to eat dinner. Let me explain the significance of the thumb's up. Whenever we sit down to eat as a family the last person to hold up a thumb has to say the blessing. Needless to say since I was taking a picture and everyone was sitting with a thumb up I had the honors.

We came home to tend to my mom. She had surgery Friday morning on her thumb. She has been having problems with it for awhile now. It will lock up and she is unable to move it. The surgeon had to go in and cut her tendon to release some of the tension.
She is recovering wonderfully!!

To my MWL, I am sorry I missed lunch today. I am sure ya'll had a great time!!

Women of Faith Conference

Today we had our first session for the Women of Faith Conference. We listened to some amazing speakers and singers. Here are a couple of pics from today:

What an appropriate title for a conference that I am attending:

The theme of the pre-conference was "All Cracked Up", meaning that no one in this world is perfect, we all have cracks.

Here is lengedary Christian singer Sandi Patty

For a couple of song she had this young lady Lisa sign while she sang. Lisa has Down's Syndrome but she has not let that slow her down. When she was signing you could tell that she was putting her heart and soul into it. It was very moving.

The main speaker at todays session, Patsy Clairmont

I had never heard Patsy speak before but let me tell you, she has one dynamic personality. She is hilarious, a tad sarcastic, and everything in between.

We had a 3 hr break before the evening session starts. We have an all-day session tomorrow and then we head home.

This next picture is specifically for Erin. I wanted to show you what mom has been reading on this trip. She is 3/4 of the way done and assures me that she will be done by next week (probably tomorrow) so that we can pass it to you!!!

Mom reading the book that Erin mentioned on her blog!!

One more note: be sure to check out my other blog Avery's World (the link is on the right). You HAVE to see Avery's Christmas stocking.

Hope everyone is having a great Friday!!

Travelin' with my mom....

My mom and I are taking a very special trip this weekend. We have driven to Oklahoma City to attend the Women of Faith conference. We were both looking forward to this conference. We had attempted to attend the conference in Dallas, however 3 months prior to the conference it was already sold-out. So we wound up here in Oklahoma City.

We arrived today around lunch time and did some sightseeing this afternoon and evening.

Our first stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial. I have been to this memorial a couple of other times but it was mom's first time to see it. If you have never been there you owe it to yourself to go sometime. It is very moving and it brings back alot of memories about that time in our country.

Here are a couple of shots from the memorial:

Me and mom standing by the reflecting pool. This pool is located where there used to be a street in front of the Murrah building.


The chairs that represent each person that perished in the bombing. The name of each person is engraved in the base of the chair. There were 168 people that died that day. Notice the difference in the size of the chairs, there are 19 smaller chairs to represent the children.

After walking around the memorial we toured the museum. Unfortunately there are no photos allowed inside the museum. The premise of the museum is to take you back to that day. It starts out as any other day, then you are taken back and see the aftermath including actual items recovered from the building site.

After an emotional visit to the memorial we decided we needed to do something fun to lift our spirits.

We went to the Bass Pro Shop to pick up some toys for Rowdy and took a great picture in there:

Mommy, save me from the bear!!!!

We then rode a water taxi down the Bricktown Canal. This is OKC's version of the riverwalk in San Antonio. They are still developing the area but it is definitely impressive.


Me and mom on the boat.


The statue series that is being sculpted to represent the settlement of Oklahoma. The bronze statues are 1 1/2 life size versions. They are still working on several pieces.

We finished up the day with dinner at Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill. Mom had a steak and I had ribs. Yum!Yum!

Our conference is tomorrow and Saturday then we head home.

October Brings Acceptance.....

Well, it's October...The part of the year when time seems to move at warp speed, the weather get cooler (even though it was 95 degrees today), and the leaves start changing colors. This October has brought acceptance to our household, acceptance that it will be 2007 before we go get our girl. I think I have been living in a fantasy. The fantasy that the CCAA will somehow start to move at the speed of lightning, and we will have Avery home by Christmas. We now know that that is not a realistic expectation. We will have to face one more Halloween, one more Thanksgiving, one more Christmas, and one more New Year without our baby. But that's okay, we have each other, we have our family, we have our friends, and we KNOW that our daughter is coming. Coming home to this crazy group of people that are eagerly awaiting her arrival and oh what a homecoming it will be. So hang on Avery, mommy and daddy are coming for you as fast as they can!!