9 Months of Paper Pregnancy

Sometimes I feel like a love sick teenager. Remember those days, where every anniversary was noted? Those we've been dating for a month, two months, etc... I've become acutely aware of time passing as we wait and today is 9 months down. Just imagine how thrilled we'd be at this point in a pregnancy. The fact is I am somewhat excited with every month that passes and even every day for that matter. So here we are hopefully past the half-way mark.

I find the most silly things to divert my attention. Yesterday I discovered that my milkweed plants have aphids. Naturally, I began looking for ladybugs in hopes that they will help me with these little pests. I found 4 ladybugs! But two of them were in a spider's nest. I have a nice little food chain going on in my flowerbed. I rescued one of the ladybugs from the evil spider and then began talking to it about eating the aphids. So this is what I've come down too? Talking to insects in the great effort to take my mind off the wait? Today there is one little ladybug out there to remind me that good things are to come and silly as it may sound I find it very comforting to know that ladybugs have found my house. I promise, I'm not losing my mind. I'm just a bit paper pregnancy stir-crazy.

Turkey Poop!

I made these little poems to send out to some friends and family. I mailed them out to all of the East Coast Girls. I figured what the heck... the wait has been "poopy" so why not have some fun! Actually, Melissa at work found the poem, then I put my scrapbookin spin on it. Fun stuff! You can bet that if I only had one class, I would have given these out to the kids but with over 600, it is just impossible!

We're Home!

We got in last night from Vegas. We had a great time but it's always nice to come home. I wish I had some good pictures but I don't. We've got to get a better camera. All of my pictures are too dark. Still, we did as usual and really didn't take that many. We went to see Lance Burton Tuesday night. It was fabulous. They even updated our seats to give us a better view. And of course, we went back to the Barbary Coast and listened to Big Elvis. Geoff and I have seen his act 3 times now. I was disappointed that his side kick Goldie wasn't there. After the show I went up to one of the show members and found out that she died this past summer. How sad! You could tell that she loved what she did. They gave me a signed picture from Big Elvis. (Believe it or not, he's lost weight since we saw him last fall! Same great voice though!) We opted to not wait in the long, long. long line at the Belliago for Thanksgiving Dinner. So this year, no turkey! We had dinner at Margaritaville instead. My big find for the trip was the cute little pj set from Baby Gap along with the pink TuTu and magic wand. I can just imagine Lexi running around pretending that she is a ballerina.

And now that we are home, this has been my spot all afternoon... reading a book that is supposed to help me with my dissertation SINCE I'm revising yet, ONCE AGAIN!!



Oh, as far as Geoff's tattoo... not. We took a taxi all the way to Hart and Huntington at the Palm's Hotel. The tatoo he would have gotten without Lexi's name on it was between $400 - $600 dollars. Just let me go on record saying "I told him so!!". He could have gotten one a lot cheaper locally. At least common sense won over. So a synopsis of my take on the "bests" of our trip:

Best Free Show: Big Elvis
Best Buffet: The Buffet at Belliago
Best Shopping Mall: The Desert Shops at the Aladdin
Best Free Mood Music: Wayne, the Saxaphone player and his side kick at Houdini's at the Monte Carlo (Wayne's Rules: No boy bands, No girl bands, No rap, No Celine Dion)
Best Free Dance Music: Some "place" at the New York, New York
Best Way Around Vegas when you don't want to walk: Taxi (for a group, it far beats the monorail!)
Best Eating Value: The Breakfast Deal at the Barbary Coast $3.45 for 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, and toast! Delicious!

We're going to Vegas!

Much to my niece's dismay, we are headed to Las Vegas tomorrow with my sister and brother in law. Jenna just hates that we are going out of town the week of Thanksgiving. Believe me, we have suffered through the "comments" of both Jenna and my mom. (Both say they are just teasing but you know, there is always some truth in comedy) Why this week? It's Carolyn and John's anniversary (15 years I think) and I'm off all week. Why not?? If it hadn't been Las Vegas it would have been the mountains. Carolyn and I would love to be going to the beach but it's not beach season. I think I'm going to take my computer on this trip and practice to see how irritating it is to carry a laptop on the airplane. I think of it as practice for going to China. Last week, I took my computer too but never connected to the Internet (too busy getting lost in traffic and limping on my foot, I guess). Maybe we'll break out of our tradition of taking the camera and then taking no pictures!

It's the night before we leave and I think I am only now getting excited about the trip. Not so for Geoff... he absolutely loves Las Vegas. Why?? I have no idea. He really doesn't gamble that much but he loves to watch others. He'd probably love to go visit the King of Cars with his Blue Genie!! He's been saying that he is going to go to Hart and Huntington and get a dragon tattoo with Lexi's name on it. We'll see if that happens or not. I love the idea because he is not just getting a tattoo for a tattoo's sake. He has actually thought the process out. The Dragon in Chinese is a symbol of strength and protection. Knowing my dear hubby, a tattoo is something he would not do on a whim. It's something that he would do solely for himself. I'll keep you posted.

Technology, Traffic and Toes!

I've been such a blogger-slacker! Actually, it's not such a bad thing because I've been staying busy. This week I've been away at the Ga. Technology Conference. What a trip this was! Geoff has vowed to never let me go out of town by myself to the big city ever again. I thought it would be a great idea to go stay with my dear friend Samantha (so I could spend time with little DJ and visit with them too). The conference was only an hour away from their house, no big deal right??? Wrong!! It's an hour away without Atlanta traffic. To top things off the night I got there I fell down the last 4 steps of her stairs and broke my toe! I drive stick shift so that was a bit uncomfortable. Plus, I stink at following directions and I kept getting lost. This is where Geoff came in handy because he got me where I needed to go every time I got lost. He ended up being my personal GPS-man. (This is funny to me because this is his initials!) My next car will have a GPS system and will be an automatic. So much for cute and sporty.

After only staying with Samantha one night and dealing with morning and afternoon traffic I opted to get a room close to the conference. (Again hubby to the rescue in getting me a room and helping me find the hotel.) This helped a lot and allowed me more time at the conference with a LOT less time driving. It was just a bit lonely being all by myself but I did learn a lot at the conference and even came home with a few free t-shirts!

The Dating Game

It's chilly tonight in the southeast! It's really a big deal as we run our air conditioners most of the year. We don't really get 4 seasons. We get warm and hot most of the year. Well with a chill in the air, Geoff felt sorry for Sable and Patches because we recently had them groomed and we always keep their hair very short. So he broke out their sweatsuits. I can't help it, it just makes me laugh to see them in doggie clothes. However, once they were dressed, I immediately thought of Pirate (Stephe's adorable little pup!) He gets to dress up all the time and he is just plain adorable!

So Pirate... let's play the dating game! Would you rather go out with Sable???

Or Patches???

Sable has the little pouting thing going . Neither girls have much dating experience. Sable loves to play with doggie toys. She is very independent except for her slightly un-natural fixation on one toy at a time habit. (Hopefully if chosen as Pirate's cyber-date, she won't turn into a stalker-dog!) Sable is more of a Southern Belle in distressed type as she often will see if someone will feel sorry for her and put her on the bed so that she doesn't have to expend much energy and jump up on her own. Her best asset is her beautiful, cute face!

Patches has the coy "check me out!" look going on. She is the snuggling type. She just loves to be cuddled and petted. Patches loves to snatch up Sable's toys and play the "see if you can get it game". She doesn't really like toys, just likes to mess with Sable. She is very smart and can track a squirrel with just a quick sniff but she has the most irritating habit of licking. If she isn't licking herself... she is licking whoever is touching her. Bad habits aside, she is a loyal companion .

So Pirate... what do you think? Need a date?? And can you ever decide between these two gorgeous southern belles?

We're in the Review Room!

CCAA changed it's site today to let the world know that they are finished reviewing the dossiers through January 31, 05. This means we're next! Progress is great!

New Referrals!!

Great News! CCAA updated their site to reflect referrals through Aug. 25, 05. They actually covered a few more days than last time. Could this be the beginning of a slight speed up in the process? I sure hope so! I think having Carol's Rose Colored Glasses is working already!

I just love watching people post referral photos! Our agency got 6 referrals today. The babies were between 8 - 12 months old. They don't expect them to travel until early January. If you want to see a real cuties, check out this website.

http://www.babyjellybeans.com/web/do/site/home?ID=45028

Oh, I can't wait until it's our turn!!

Insomnia

Insomnia is cruel. Here it is after 11:00 on a work night and I can't sleep. I probaby could have at 7:00 but I fought it off thinking I'd go to bed early. We did but only Geoff is sleeping. It's amazing how sleepy I can be and then go WIDE awake as soon as I lay down. Ambien CR isn't helping tonight either! My mind is just racing wondering if referrals will ever come out from CCAA. Our agency predicted them last week, then hoped for Monday or Tuesday. Now they are hoping for Thursday or Friday. Everyone is wondering if it's possible that they will make referrals through August but most are saying they will only go through Aug. 24, 06. I know those waiting for the any day now news are just about to lose their minds. I can only imagine how little I will sleep when our turn comes. Then I wonder about Carol, Bill, Manette and Matt. Are they in China yet? Are they in the air? How must that feel knowing that you are just days away from your daughter? I guess I'll go back to bed and see if an episode of American Justice is on A&E. Sometimes that works. I tried a PBS episode called "Capturing the Killer Croc". Got to the end and they didn't capture the blasted thing... so why call it CAPTURING?? I believe when I get like this I could watch the dust bunnies accumulate on the living room floor and still not get bored out of my mind! Night... Night, maybe I'll be sleeping soon.