JAPANESE???

Well, Dianne had this fun little test on her blog. She took it and it said she should learn to speak French...which she does. So I took it to see if I should learn German which I took in high school. Nope. Not German. Not French. Not Spanish. Not even Chinese. Japanese. Yep, Japanese. Japanese??? I should learn Japanese? Huh? That's crazy. I will have to see what our friends Osamu, Kayo, and Hiroshi say to this. I'm sure they will ROTFL.

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture. From English to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

And for what it's worth, I find the word "Engrish" in this little graphic offensive. I'm not sure why I even put this on my blog but here it is. I may have to delete it later. Oh, but that does make me think about my favorite movie. Lost in Translation.
Update: Thanks to Di I have corrected that offensive little word to now read English.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED....well sort of.

The goal for my project in Alabama for Pre-Xmas was to have the remodel and addition at a state where my Mom could have her 35th Annual Cookie Swap and our Christmas dinner at what was my grandmother's dining table in the newly remodelled house (which used to be my grandparents' house when they were living). Well, we pushed and pushed and pushed til we couldn't push anymore. We just had to settle that the house was ready except for ....the kitchen cabinets...oh and her bathroom cabinets. Everyone really worked beyond the call of duty...except the cabinetmaker who I choose to call out. Yep, no kitchen cabinets. {The cabinetmakers are Nixon Cabinets in Athens, AL.} My mom and dad were and are still angreeeeee to say the least. Who knew it would take 3 years to build kitchen cabinets??? But that didn't stop Christmas or the Cookie Swap. We set up a temporary kitchen island which was an old store counter that my grandfather had given me from his feed and seed store. We made it our Snack Bar for the Cookie Swap and family gatherings. Our snacks were served out of 7 galvanized buckets lined up down the feed and seed store counter. As for Xmas dinner, we cooked and heated food next door and brought it over. Well worth the extra effort and hassle! We moved in the basic furniture and then the drapery lady came in for her installation. Then the most amazing upholsterer delivered his masterpieces! That was the best Christmas present ever...for my mom and me. Upholstery pictures to be posted soon.


Mom on the left and Joy(the Cookie Swap co-hostess)
on the right standing at the table with the wassail
and vintage Santa mugs. Located in the
breakfast hall looking towards the office loft.



Striped hall looking towards library.


The cabinet-less kitchen loft with Snack Bar.
Notice the stainless steel tool cabinet we are
using as temporary storage. Vintage industrial
lights salvaged from a New Orleans warehouse
and restored Pre-Katrina.


The store counter from Pop's feed and seed store
AKA The Snack Bar. Located approximately where
the kitchen island will be. Cast iron column
salvaged from old warehouse in Memphis.
Mike(BIL) seated and Jasper(nephew), the
cutie-patootie.

So, now that the mission is somewhat accomplished, we are ready and waiting on Maxine's referral. The soonest we could hear something would be Jan 24th. So it could be anytime from a few weeks to a few months. As everyone knows that is involved in IA, you just never know what the CCAA will do and when they will do it. So Fingers and Toes Crossed for Good Luck!!!

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.