MOK IS 40!!!!

Hey, hey, hey....Mok turns 40 today!!!
Happy Birthday!!!

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!!!

AND THIS TIME IT WASN'T MY CONCRETE BLOCK FENCE.
Dianne has tagged me in the blog-osphere world which means I get to answer some fun questions. So here goes... (hope I can muster up some xmas spirit for this.)
It's a Christmas Tag:
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? WRAPPING PAPER but I really love the printed boxes I got at Big Lots a couple of years ago. Very cool vintage graphics. But I do have to admit that I use bags if a present requires it.
2. Real tree or artificial? FAKE FAKE FAKE!!! I have a silver tinsel tree, a white tinsel tree, and a red tinsel tree but my favorite tree is the one I made from scraps of metal wire and an old metal patio umbrella frame. I gave it to my mom to use a couple of years ago and we call it Roadside Christmas.
3. When do you put up your tree? After the Thanksgiving Holidays.
4. When do you take the tree down? New Years...umm...sometimes July. As for the Roadside Xmas tree, we don't take it down. We drape it with vintage barkcloth.
5. Do you like eggnog? Yup! with bourbon or brandy or whatever alcohol you put in it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? My pink floral sleeping bag. Oh and, a white wicker table from Grandma.
7. Do you have a Nativity scene? No, I don't think so but I have so many unopened plastic storage boxes of xmas decorations.
8. Hardest person to buy for? Mok
9. Easiest person to buy for? Me! ; ) LOL
10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? The 3 vacuum cleaners someone kept giving me every year.
11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail if I had time.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? Rudolf
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? October
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Uhhh...not a xmas present.
15. Favorite things to eat at Christmas? PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM!!!
16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? BIG, FAT COLORED ONES MIXED WITH LITTLE COLORED ONES! No blinkers, though.
17. Favorite Christmas song? Rockin Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Travel only if my dogs can go. Ideally travel to snow!
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Probably.
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel made of silver screening material.
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Open 1 present xmas eve which is pajamas from my mom. And the rest... xmas morning after we open the stockings. And now we do dirty Santa on Christmas night. That is the most fum thing to do!
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? TRAFFIC!
23. What is the "corniest" family tradition you do, or miss doing? It's not corny to me! I love it....making a cookie house.
24. Ugliest Christmas Decoration ever invented? The big bright fuzzy red bows. They are the worst color of red.
25. Which looks the best, theme trees or homey trees? Hmmm? Vintage, ecletic colorful.
26. What does Christmas mean to you? Family and EATING and Mom and Joy's annual cookie swap!

1 YEAR AND COUNTING....

Today is our 1 year LID anniversary. Is that a good thing? Well, I'm not sure about that. It is a good thing if you have to wait over a year for your referral. It means we are 12 months closer to travelling to China to be united with Maxine.
I have done quite a few things to keep myself distracted from the wait. Some good. Some not so good. Some as frustrating as the wait itself. Some ridiculous. But as long as I was distracted from the wait, then that was a good thing, right?
Here are some of the things I did to keep myself distracted.
-Moving my horse from Tennessee (where my BIL was training her) to California and getting a new horse trainer. Side effects can be family-strifus, roughus-on-the-walletus, but... lots-of-funnus.
-Caring for my dog who has cancer which required chemotherapy and radiation. Side effects (for me) can be heartus-breakus, roughus-on-the-walletus, cleaning-uppus-lots-of-crappus and other bodily fluids during all times of day and night. But I am so thankful she is keeping me company during this wait. She is training me well for a baby's schedule.
-Demo-ing the interior of our house. We are currently attempting to get it remodelled in time for Maxine's arrival.(That's not gonna happen.) Side effects are inability to locatus-our-belongings, only one funtioning-toiletus, and panica-attacki's.
-Designing and attempting to manage the construction of 2 projects that are 2000 miles away from my home in another time zone. Side effects are extremely longus-commutus and unpredictable workus-hours.
-Some other distractions have included Mandarin lessons, shopping(mostly with Dianne!), blogging, joining yahoo groups, starting yahoo groups, eating, tennis, severely spraining my ankle while playing tennis, shopping on the internet, internet surfing while eating(mostly unhealthy, fattening things), and coloring my hair a ridiculously inappropriate color, oh... and more eating. Let's just say when I look in the mirror these days, I am not thinking about how long I have been waiting. I am thinking, "What the hell was I thinking?!!"
-One of the most rewarding things I have done is to make new friends as well as reconnect with longtime friends. So, its been a very busy year...but not as busy as the upcoming year will be. We are *hoping* for our referral to arrive in January and to travel in the spring. Fingers crossed. A more conservative outlook would be that our referral should arrive in March and travel in late May???? We just don't know. Nobody really knows. So back to my distractions for a couple more months...minus the ankle injury, hopefully. And maybe I will get a hair color correction... and maybe I won't. Or, maybe I will get some crazeee chunky highlights, paint my fingernails purple, and wear goth clothing.

PS. That is a picture of what we now call Maxine Pie. I thought we would celebrate our 1 Year LID-iversary with a chocolate pie. It is chocolate cream pie and it unfortunately tasted like hell. YUCK! Whoever said, all pie is good pie, is WRONG! Californians CAN'T make pie to save their lives! If you ever wanted to taste a real chocolate pie, you would have to have had a chocolate meringue pie from H&H in Athens, AL...but sadly, very sadly they closed recently and left me not much of anyplace to eat at night when visiting for work and family functions. If anyone knows where I can find the pie maker for H&H, please let me know. Like I need more pie. We are back to that eating thing as a distraction, again.

www.mytennesseewalkinghorse.blogspot.com

To Maxine. From Marme'.

These are some really cute things that my mom has given me for Maxine.
A pale pink knitted blanket, "Beetlejuice" dress, "Sox-Tab" Mary Jane shoes, "Adidas" tennis skirt, & "Sand and Sun" beach shoes. Just thought I would show them off for everyone to see. Thank-you, Mom for all the goodies!!! And, in the background is one of my vintage orange chenilles I am saving for Maxine's room.
And... the count down to "LID 1 Year" has begun. We are 4 days away from being logged in for 1 entire year! That's right... almost officially waiting for one year.

DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!

My nephew, Austin is 10 years old today!!! (Double Digits, as he says.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUSTIN!!!

What have we been up to???
Let's see...
Between, my severely sprained ankle, my dog's cancer and chemo schedule, our work schedules, our remodel, visiting my horse weekly, and my Mandarin lessons, life has been BUSY.
Besides that, my dad visited us Oct 10th - 12th. Then he borrowed my car for a little 3 week jaunt up to No Cal to go the vegan farm. So we were down to one car for the two of us. Mok said he was going to take the bus to work. HA. That might have happened twice.
On the 21st, Dianne and I co-organized a dimsum get together for waiting parents in the LA area. That was so nice to meet everyone in the same slow boat to China as us. And just for fun, I customized a onesie for every couple with the Chinese characters for baby. (Thanks to Kathy, my friend and Mandarin teacher, for supplying the most appropriate characters for this project...bao bei meaning baby / treasure / darling.)



And then after meeting all of these great people, I started a yahoo group for us, LA Waiting Parents. Yes, me the computer dummy is blogging and moderating a yahoo group.
Then on the 23rd-28th, Mok had to go to NJ for work and a wedding. While he was gone, "baby-girl" had her chemo. Oh my. The aftermath of chemo is rough for several days.
I left for a work trip to AL on the 29th-3rd. And while I was gone my dad returned to LA with my car. While in AL besides working at least 12 hour days, I did get to visit with Susan C and her family one evening. What cute kids she has! Also while we were working our tails off, my mom fell and split her knees and hand open and had to get 8 stitches in one of her knees. I have photos. They are a little blurry due to the blackberry camera and the shaky hand taking them. YUCK. Since my mom's doctor was "too busy to see her," our contractor got us into see his doctor where his sister works. We had a ENT doctor sew up her knee while balancing her leg on his lap. Life is always interesting around here.



So since my mom was somewhat incapacitated, my sister met us in Nashville to drive us around to 3 fabric stores and then onto the airport where I departed and my dad arrived. My dad got off the plane that I flew out on. (Are you confused yet???) So Dad and I visted at the gate and then he drove my sister back to her apt and then Mom and Dad went on back to Athens.
I arrived back just in time to celebrate Mok's and my 8 YEAR WEDDING ANNIVERSARY on November 5th!!! Woo Hoo!!! Since it was a Monday, our favorite restaurant, Joe's was closed. : ( So we went to Bottlerock. It was a really nice change of pace. We highly recommend it. (Paula introduced me to this place. Thanks Paula!) Then Tuesday Mok left for another work trip to NJ. And last night, I went to the Salt Creek Grill to meet Kathy, Janet, and Gwen who are other waiting mothers that live on the westside. (I met them at our dimsum get together.) Such a nice relaxed evening. Whew.... And I think it only gets busier from now until Christmas.
Oh and while all of this was happening, referrals arrived on Nov 2nd/5th for regular LIDs of Dec 1st - 8th, 2005 and for Chinese expedited LIDs for the month of Sept 2006!!! SEPT 2006!!! OMG!!! We are NOV 2006! So we just have October 2006 and then us?!? HUH??? WHAT??!? Now let's just say that the CCAA does not always refer out expedited LIDs every single month and sometimes they only refer out half months. But let's not forget that in October they referred out 2 months. *GULP* Holeee moleeeee.... I need to get my **** in supersonic gear.

DID I EVER SHOW YOU THESE???

First of all, I have a very talented and generous friend, Dianne...who MADE/CREATED/DESIGNED these outfits. Yes, she actually sewed these wonderful outfits for Maxine! AMAZING, AREN'T THEY?!?
As I said in a previous post, I am lucky but I am really, really lucky to have such a talented and generous friend. And, how super cute will Maxine be in these retro inspired ensembles!?! Well, when we finally get Maxine home with us and venture out to a vintage car show, she will have to wear the 50's inspired dress with the shades. (See the Paddy Wagon Rides Again post.) And, when we travel with the airstream, she must sport the chenille shorts and cropped top. (Our airstream is a 1948 Wee Wind, I might add. See the Airstream Dream post.) Oh and, check out the pocket on the chenille shorts. It is a vintage pink stove. Love vintage stoves!!!
And if you want your own Dianne creation, she sells these on www.etsy.com under Itsy Betsy. I think this is the link to her virtual store. Enjoy!
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5104755

ITSY BETSY

THE HUNTSVILLE TIMES

A daughter is waiting After all this time, there comes a peace to know the call is near
Sunday, October 14, 2007
By GINA HANNAH
Times Business Writer
gina.hannah@htimes.com

In this two-part series, Times staff writer Gina Hannah writes about the two-year process she and her husband went through to adopt a child from China. The series will conclude next Sunday.

For the past hour and a half, the electronic reader board above our heads at Hong Kong International Airport's Gate 66 has flashed a destination of Changsha in Mainland China. It is in Changsha where our group - 15 couples and one husband whose wife has to stay home in the States - will meet the dark-haired, doe-eyed little girls who will become our daughters.

We're dragging with jet lag. A few of us have what we can only assume is food poisoning. We meander about the gate, sipping bottled water and nibbling on granola bars. Some of us fire up laptops, taking advantage of the airport's free wireless Internet service to e-mail home.

One of the husbands, a man from Knoxville named Kelly, notices the reader board no longer says the flight from Gate 66 is going to Changsha. It's headed to Tokyo.

A voice crackles over the loudspeaker in a language we don't understand, then in English we can't hear well. Kelly goes to the check-in counter and learns our flight is delayed and changed to another gate at the opposite end of the airport. My husband, Pete, and I look at one another and sigh, then join the others, gathering our weary bodies and our luggage and heading to our new gate.

It's just another minor hurdle on our journey to become parents.

Choices, decisions

Our journey began long before we set foot on a red-eye flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong. It began with the hopes and expectations most couples have when they decide to start a family. But the months, then the years, passed us. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary, our 40th birthdays.

We watched as friends welcomed one, two, three babies into the world. We envied them. We saw other friends choose to remain childless, focusing their energy on their careers, travel, each other, at peace with their decision. We envied them, too.

Drugs, hormones, surgery didn't help. A reproductive endocrinologist gave us a definitive answer: My insides were too tangled for a healthy pregnancy to take place - at least not without more surgery. Then, with the help of more drugs and hormones, "maybe" I would conceive. "Maybe" I could carry the baby to term. Early labor could mean emergency surgery and permanent damage.
We decided I wouldn't have the surgery.

We would, however, create a family. Adoption would be our choice. We contacted agencies, joined online parent groups, asked questions. We considered different countries. We weighed the pros and cons, made a decision, changed our minds, then changed our minds again.

Our ultimate choice came from my husband's family's past.

Paper pregnant

At age 87, my mother-in-law still recalls scenes from her childhood in mainland China - the steep hills, the rickshaws, Tung Ting Lake, the largest lake in central China. Her parents, Pete's grandparents, were missionaries in Hunan Province, from the time my mother-in-law was 2 until she was 9. She still remembers being evacuated during the anti-Christian movement in the 1920s.

"Wouldn't it be neat if our child came from the same place where Mom lived?" Pete mused.

During our research, we learned that we could specify which region of China we'd like our child to be from, but it could delay our referral, because there was no guarantee when the paperwork for babies in a certain province would be processed. Among the orphanages that care for the millions of Chinese children - mostly girls - who are abandoned because of the country's one-child policy, many don't participate in the government's adoption program.

We tell our home study social worker that we will accept a child from any province.

Our agency tells us the wait from the day our paperwork is logged in by the Chinese government to getting our referral is six-to-eight months. About six weeks after referral, they said, we will travel to China to meet our child and bring her home.

The paperwork takes several months to gather. Our dossier, which will be sent to China for review, includes our home study, medical exams, financial statements, reference letters, employment letters, background checks, child abuse clearance forms, birth, marriage and divorce certificates.
Each document must be notarized, certified by the county clerk, verified by the Alabama Secretary of State, then authenticated by the U.S. Secretary of State. At the end of the process, a cardboard box holding copies of our paperwork weighs 11 pounds.
Our agency translates our dossier into Chinese and sends it to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs, or CCAA, China's government office overseeing adoptions. Two weeks later, we get our log-in date: Sept. 12, 2005. The clock is ticking; we are officially "paper pregnant."

Unlike with a typical pregnancy, I can celebrate with a big glass of wine.

'Rumor Queen'

We calculate that we'll travel in the spring of 2006, maybe as late as summer. We start buying baby books and toys (it's difficult to buy clothes for a child whose age or size you don't know). We wait. And wait. And wait.

Spring and summer come and go. We add 1,000 square feet to our house. We paint. We buy more toys and books and stuffed animals. We answer questions from well-meaning friends and family as best we can.

We ask our agency about the lengthening wait. There are no firm answers. We join online waiting-parent groups - and rumors fly.

Toward the end of each month, I keep vigil, watching CCAA's Web site, which is changed once a month to reflect the latest cutoff date for referrals ready to be sent. We wait for any nugget that might help us get a grasp on when we'll be able to bring our babies home.

Waiting parents have cyber slumber parties, gathering at computers from across the United States, Britain, Australia, France, Spain and Scandinavia, sipping coffee, tea, wine, martinis, depending on our own personal time of day. We chat on a Web site created by a woman we know only as "Rumor Queen," a woman who is waiting for her second child from China and is, apparently, good at crunching statistics.

She looks at the length of time between referrals, the number of referrals in each monthly batch, and tells us it doesn't look good. The referrals are based on our log-in dates, and each month, fewer log-in dates are included in the batch.

One night, I dream that I awake very early in the morning, go to my laptop and see that the new cutoff is Aug. 9, 2005, just about a month away from our date. A couple of days later, I wake up, fire up my laptop, and peek at CCAA's site.

There's a new cutoff date.

It's Aug. 9, 2005.

'The Call'

It's a surreal feeling, the peace that comes from knowing something you've been waiting for so long is about to happen. A comedian I heard once referred to it as the joy of being "next." Because we know on which dates the Chinese government logged in dossiers, we know that we're coming up to bat. We celebrate another Christmas childless, but without the grief and emptiness of years past. Relatives come to see our bigger house. We stock the bar and throw a New Year's Eve party - the last one of its kind we'll be having in a while, we figure. There are still half-full bottles sitting on our bar when we get The Call. It's Jan. 4, 2007.

Other parents have told us about The Call. "You have a daughter!" a joyous voice on the other end of the line says. Or, sometimes it's "You have twins!" Even more surprising is the occasional "You have a son!"

Our caller's voice has a slightly different tone, more cautionary. I think her name is Jan. As she speaks, I want to reach through the phone lines to grasp her meaning.

"Before I send you any information, you need to know that this little girl is older than the age range you requested," the woman says. "She's 20 months old."

Nearly 2!

"If you don't think you can accept this little girl, you can turn down the referral and your dossier will be put back in with the next batch," she tells us.
We hang up the phone. We remember our training, where we learned that sometimes the longer a baby has been in an institution, the higher the risk of development and attachment problems. We talk. We pray. We weep. We pick up the phone and call the woman back.

This is our daughter. Send us a picture.

We get our photo Jan is sending us a picture of our daughter via e-mail, and our Internet service is out. We're upstairs, in the hallway. Pete waves a laptop over his head, trying to patch into our next-door neighbor's wireless service.

I'm doing my best to write down a birthdate, height, weight, location, all with trembling fingers. I have a list of questions recommended by other parents, concerning health, living conditions, dietary needs, clothing sizes. I manage to ask none of them.

But we get our photo, a small thumbnail headshot, and this much we know:

She is beautiful.

She is healthy.

Her name is Fu Li Bian.

Her birthday is May 26, the day after mine.

And she is waiting for us, in Hunan Province.

LUCKY ME...

Lookie, lookie, lookie at what Jamie (my sister also to be known as Aunt Jamie), sent for Maxine. Oh, won't Maxine be the cutest girl ever in this?!!
I LOVE IT!!! How cute is this?!!


I am so lucky.

FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE....

http://journeytoanna.com/

http://nuestrapaloma.blogspot.com/

http://parelsuitchina.punt.nl/

http://www.awaitingbabysis.blogspot.com/

http://scubakath42.blogspot.com/

http://slow-boat-to-china.blogspot.com/

THE OCTOBER BATCH

Well, its that time of the month. No, not that time of the month!
IT'S REFERRAL TIME! Referrals have arrived for the month and it looks like the CCAA has sent non expedited NSN (Non Special Needs) referrals out for LIDs(Log In Date) for November 26th, 2005 through at least November 30th, 2005. The cut off date has not been announced yet but that is everyone's best guess as of right now. That was a very disappointing amount of referrals for non expedited families. And, my heart goes out to those with early December 2005 LIDs.
BUT... the interesting part that concerns Mok and I, is that the CCAA referred out 2 months worth of LIDs for families of Chinese heritage. (FYI: That's Mok!!!) So, they have referred out July and August of 2006!!!! WOO HOO!!! August 2006 families were definitely surprised. It just goes to show that you can never tell what will happen in international adoption. So, as of yesterday we were figuring about 9 more months until we received our referral... but now with only 2.5 months of LIDs ahead of us... who knows??? Only time will tell. Hmmmm? I don't even know what to think at this point???
PS. Our LID is 11-17-06

WHAT'S MY FUNKY INNER HAIR COLOR?!?

Your Hair Should Be Orange

Expressive, deep, and one of a kind. You pull off "weird" well - hardly anyone notices.

What's Your Funky Inner Hair Color?

OK...I MIGHT BE TRYING THIS NEXT TIME.

"THE GARAGE-MA-HALL"...work update

Just walking -n- talking....
Maybe this is a new Olympic event???





What is a garage-ma-hall, you ask??? Well, this one is an 8 car garage with a loft style "office, gathering space, and kitchenette" on the second floor with a balcony and roof deck. It sounds kind of mundane right now but check back for the "fire escape stair" installation.

Meanwhile Back at the Farm....

"A Pup Cake"

ON THE ROAD...

Tucumcari, NM


Have a Slaw Burger at Honey's in Fayetteville, TN


Try the Fried Pickles at Granny Fishes'


Waterfall near Tullahoma. TN


Meridian, MS


Meridian, MS

The Maiden Voyage

THE AIRSTREAM DREAM....

Visions of shiny aluminum trailers danced in their heads...
Well, the airstream dream has been years in the re-making and it has finally come to fruition. This journey could have qualified for its own personal blog. It took longer to restore, remodel, & rehab this tiny little trailer than it will take us to adopt a child from China!!! We could probably have adopted 2 children from China in the time it took to make this airstream dream happen. Just some background information on this tin can. It is a 1948 Airstream Wee Wind model.
So without further ado, here are some before and almost-after photos. I will be adding more pictures ASAP from our maiden voyage. If you have an airstream or vintage trailer of your own please share.

More photos of the transformation

BEFORE PIC...it's not so bad, right?


WRONG... it was pretty bad.


VERY WRONG... it was a disaster.


Visions of shiny aluminum trailers danced in their heads...
ALMOST-AFTER... see I told you I had a vision.


OK, VERY SHINY... inside and out!

HERE WE ARE....AT THE TWHNC

Where, oh where have we been, you ask??? Well, we have been to compete in the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration aka The Celebration in Shelbyville, Tennessee. First of all, photo courtesy of Shane Shiflet. Thank-you. Finally... a picture to be proud of. Now, it's time to brag!!! What a beautiful horse I have!!! I am one proud horse-mama. As one of the locals in Shelbyville said, "sheez a lawng n lean, mean wawking ma-sheen." I totally agree. She is awesome.
She's All That Jazz
So, "Thank-you's" go out to Russ Thompson's Stables and especially to Greg Bryant. Great job guys! We will be returning to So Cal this week. Phew...gotta get out of this heat and humidity. 105 degrees with high humidity is too much for me to handle not to mention my dog children. They are roasting. The pavement is too hot for their tootsies. Yee-ouch! So, final packing tonight and a hopeful early departure tomorrow morning is in order. YEE-HAW!!! (that's Tennessee talk) California here I come!!!
PS. More of my adventure to be updated ASAP which will include my luggage carrier taking flight, pics of diners, project updates, and the airstream adventure.

8 months and still counting.....

Could it really be our 8 month LID anniversary?!??!! YES, it could be!!!! So, here we are having been registered with the CCAA for 8 months. (That doesn't include the many months we waited for our homestudy to be complete.) That sounds like a long time but there are families that have been logged in 19 and 20 months and still don't have their referral/baby! Our friends D&D have been logged in for almost 16 months. (twice as long as us!) YIKES...now that's a long time. Hopefully, we won't have to wait that long but you never know what the timeline will be where international adoption is concerned.
The latest "rumor" concerning the Chinese heritage expedited referral track (which we are to suppose to qualify...thanks to Mok being born in Hong Kong) is that it should take somewhere between 12 and 15 months for referral...that is from another Chinese expedited parent in waiting (in my Chinese expedited referral yahoo group) who met with the CCAA recently when they visited their adoption agency in Australia. The practical side of me tends to think it will take 15 months. But a little voice keeps telling me to be prepared at any point from here on out to drop everything to go to China. Yeah, I know. I should see somebody about that little voice I'm hearing. ; )
So if we "listen" to the rumor, it could 4(*gulp*) - 7(*ugh*) more months until we get out referral. So that is the latest info I have on our status but I'm still hoping I will get an update from my facilitator soon.

HORSIN' AROUND....

Well, here are some photos of my equine baby girl. She is a Tennessee Walking Horse named She's All That Jazz. (I didn't name her... these horses are named after their "daddies." Her "daddy" is The Jazz Man.)
She is trained in So. Cal. but has already made the cross country trip (with our trainer, Russ Thompson) to Shelbyville, Tn for the TWHNC aka The Celebration. www.twhnc.com

So without further ado, her she is.


Here she comes... but that is not me riding her.


And, she won...this is her victory pass!!!


And, here she is with a very cute 12 year old girl showing her!!!


Uh, that's obviously not me either...but she(my horse) looks awesome!!!


And, there she goes. Tennessee or Bust!!!

The Paddy Wagon Rides Again...

After having misplaced the only key for many months, replaced the battery, and fixed the two back tires, the Paddy wagon is ready to roll. The Paddy needed to be driven and moved to a new parking spot for my nestitis disorder to be treated. Success! The Paddy is almost as good as new. The Paddy needs to find a new momma &/or daddy. So if anyone knows a car buff looking for that rare 1-Ton 1953 Chevrolet Panel Van, let them know that my Paddy is for sale. Sad but true...the Paddy wagon is for sale.

JULY REFERRALS

This month regular referrals were allotted to those families with LID's of November 7th, 2005(!) through November 14th, 2005(!). Congrats to the new families!!! As for Chinese heritage expedited referrals no one seems to think any were allotted. So, the theory is that we(expedited) were skipped this month. Why? No one seems to have an answer for that. The families "Logged In" during June 2006 were those up next for Chinese expedited referrals. So, I wish for them a second surprise batch this month. That is what I would call Christmas in July... a second surprise referral batch. So speaking of Christmas... with the unpredictability of expedited referrals, my prediction of travelling in December 2007 is waning. But as we have been told before, we never know what the CCAA has up their sleeve. Anything is possible.
So to keep you entertained, here are some of the newly referred babies. Enjoy!!!
http://www.gettingourgirls.blogspot.com/
http://meimeimaia.spaces.live.com/
http://www.questforcadence.blogspot.com/
http://waiting4kailee.blogspot.com/
http://www.oliviadenae.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/Mollymatthews/web/referral-photos
http://welcomehomelittleone.blogspot.com/
http://norgauer.blogspot.com/

Penthouse Pool Party....check

Well, the roof deck was completed just in time to view the fireworks on the 4th of July. So, to beat the heat I "installed" a roof top pool. Check it out.



Plastic kiddie pool from Rite-Aid - $8.00
Floating froggie fountain from Big Lots - $2.00
Duckie Rug from Target - $1.00
Turtle Floatie - priceless. * Again, compliments of Dianne which was the gift that inspired the roof top pool.

HOPE YOU HAD A HAPPY 4TH...

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES, FLAG CAKE & FIRECRACKER ONSIE *Onsie compliments of the one and only... Dianne.



Per Susan's request the following is my
Easy Breezy Fried Green Tomato recipe. I preface this recipe with saying that I like them thin and crispy.
4 green tomatoes sliced thin
Mixture of cornmeal, garlic powder optional and pepper optional.
Buttermilk
Dip tomato slices into buttermilk then dredge them in the cornmeal mixture. (This is a messy process.)
I pan fry these in vegetable oil until slightly brown and then do the flipside. Drain on paper towels and sprinkle with salt immediately. (If you are doing a second batch, you may need to add more oil.) It is best to eat these immediately but if you can't or you have leftovers....then you can "re-fry" them. I have and they were even better! I also like to make BFT's with them. That is a Bacon and Fried Tomato sandwich. Mayo is optional but highly recommended on toast. When I "re-fry" them for a BFT sandwich I like to fry the bacon first then then use the bacon grease for the "re-frying" of the tomatoes. I know it's bad for you but how many times a year are you going to find green tomatoes. So enjoy them that once a year you have them!!!
PS. I also use this same process for my fried pickles and fried okra.
PPS. I found my green tomatoes at the Santa Monica Farmer's Market on Main Street but Susan you could check the farmer's market in Athens if you are over there early in the morning. It is down the hill from Kreme Delight.