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.