On pins and needles....again

Oh heaven help me I am not sure I can take much more. Okay, word has it that the CCAA is now matching part of April. The big question is "WHAT PART OF APRIL?". We have heard from one of the bigger agencies that the referrals will be mailed next week and that they are getting referrals for 4/12 and 4/14. That info does not help me because their next Log In Date is not until 4/27 and we are 4/19. So somewhere between 4/14 and 4/27 the CCAA cut off. Where? I don't know! I am really preparing myself to wait another month. I know I will really bummed if we are not in this batch but I am really trying to not get my hopes up. But there is a really big possibility that CCAA will only go to 4/15. That is what some of the larger agencies are predicting. Soooo close and yet soooo far.

Well I did it

I am putting myself out there with my dresses. I have now listed them on my website too. They have their own page titled "Dresses". Real unique huh? Anyway, if you are not familiar with my website you can view it at:

stahley.bravehost.com

I would love to have you take a look at it and please sign my guestbook while you are there. There is a link on the left to do that.

Thanks for looking,
China Mama

Thanksgiving.....come and gone

Our Thanksgiving weekend is almost over. It was short lived and we are already on to Christmas. One day of Thanksgiving and then the Christmas decorations come out and the tree goes up.

I was so hoping to have Olivia home for Christmas this year. I am pretty sure she will not be home for Valentines Day and Easter may be cutting it close.

Evan heads home tomorrow morning. Last night in the middle of the night the phone rings and it is for Evan. I head downstairs with the phone to get him and I mean that literally. I slipped on something on the steps and went down head over heals. I was sure I broke my foot in the process. It throbbed most of the night. I can walk on it though so I think it is just sprained or bruised. The rest of my body felt like it had been hit by a truck when I got up this morning. Oh, and the phone call was from Evan's room mate letting him know their dorm was broken into and that Evan's playstation was broken and Tyler's computer was stolen. Thank goodness Evan had brought his computer home with him.

Yesterday was Black Friday otherwise known as "The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year!" I left at 5:30 AM and only had a few stores to go to. Lisa, my SIL, went to a couple others and we just helped each other out. Every year I ask myself why I do this. And every year I do it again. I didn't spend too much this year. I got Morgan's Christmas done, bought some more material for my dresses and got a great deal on my candles that I love so much. (I am a candle nut-I just love those big 20 ounce candles and burn them in just about every room of the house.)

Weather is still ccccold but should warm up for a few days. I am really not liking the cold anymore. LOL. I need to move. :)

Snow, snow go away.....

I hate snow. We are getting dumped on today and it is not even Thanksgiving yet! YUCK! It is pretty, but I hate driving in it and I hate how cold it is.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Evan should be on his way home right now. (Shhhhh, it is a surprise though). We are going to Mike's sister's for Thanksgiving. I am taking the crescents and the dressing. Easy enough I suppose.

Friday is my shopping day. I am one of those dorks that gets up at 4:00 AM and stands in line to get into the stores for all the "great deals". Even if I don't need anything I go anyway just because.

I keep finding lots of stuff to get for Olivia and she won't even be with us for Christmas. I already have quite a stash so I really need to stop buying stuff. It is just so hard to not want to spoil her.

Well....once again the rumors are not looking very promising. Word coming from a couple of the larger agencies is that the CCAA will continue to split months for a while. With that being said, having a LID of 4/19 is not a very good position. It is not looking real good that we will be next. The ONLY good thing about that is that we will be in the next group for sure! It is an early rumor but the source is normally right on, so....... not looking to good.

Will we be next or won't we. That is the question and only time will tell. We should probably know in a couple weeks. I don't know if they are going to split April like they did March. If they do, we probably won't get our referral until the first of January. The waiting is so hard.

I am going shopping in Chicago today. I am going with my friend Julia from South Bend. She is taking us Thrift Store shopping. It will be her last outing before she takes off for China. She is leaving on November 30th to pick up her second "China Princess".

Morgan celebrated her 10th birthday on Wednesday. Her "birthday party" with 15 of her friends is tomorrow. I don't believe I was thinking straight when I allowed her to invite 15 nine and ten year olds over. Just call me loopy. Mike has agreed to help me out though. Believe it or not it will be the first time he has helped out with one of the kids' birthday parties. I think I will let him handle the pinata'. HaHa!

Next week is Thanksgiving already. This month is just flying by. Thank Goodness!

This is also the wonderful deer hunting season. Mike's dad got two deer last weekend-accidently! He shot one and then thought he was shooting at the same one and killed another one. LOL! Mike can't get lucky enough to get a shot at one and his dad kills two. Good thing is he doesn't use the meat and we do-so we got the meat from two so far.

Dresses, Dresses, Dressess....

I have turned into a dress making fool.

The dresses from our Lovebug shower were a hit and so now several of the girls are interested in some dresses. I bought some more material yesterday and need to pop out 5 more dresses plus the extra two I already have done so I can post a few of them. This is getting crazy.

This is opening weekend for deer hunting so I have seen very little of Mike. He left yesterday morning at 4:30 and ended up spending the night at his mom and dads. I guess he has two deer to bring home so far, but he has yet to shoot one.

Katie was in an accident on Friday night. Allie, her best friend, was driving and Sami my niece was with them. They were all okay. The SUV is totalled but they made it out okay. Pretty banged up and stressed out, but okay. Katie got strapped to a back board and a neck brace and got an ambulance ride to the hospital too.

I also got to keep baby Nolan overnight on Friday night. Lisa was really sick and Jon really wanted to go deer hunting so I suggested that they let me take Nolan so Lisa could take some meds and get a good night sleep. Nolan did great and it gave me some middle of the night practice. I think mommy was much more stressed out than Nolan was.

The Stork is Here.....

Well the stork has landed for half of my LoveBug buddies today. They have been posting referrals for the last hour. We even have one set of twins! Yeah! All our babies seem to be from the same orphanage in the Guandong province which means after they tour Beijing they will get to fly down to Guanzhou and stay for 1 1/2 weeks in tropical climates. How cool. The twins are 20 months old and the youngest so far is 7 months. This hopefully means I am officially in the next group. Whoppeeee!

Last night I had my LoveBug Cyber Shower. All the girls from our LoveBug group got together and chatted online. We played some shower games and opened our gifts from our secret pals. It was alot of fun. Above is a picture of all my goodies I have recieved from my secret pal over the last several months. We all decorated our computer areas and ate chocolate and drank tea for our refreshements. We were online until about midnight. Whew! It was a great sucess.

No Referrals this week

Well CCAA is taking their sweet old time this week. There are no referrals being sent this week. ARGH! Evidently the Director is gone until next week and he needs to sign off on all of the referrals. I wish they would hurry because the sooner the rest of March is sent out the sooner the April can be sent out.

I feel so bad for my fellow LoveBugs. More than half of our group has log in dates of 3/30 and they are next in expecting their referrals. This dragging it out is torture. I want to see their babies!!!

Wild Weekend

Last weekend I was flying by the seat of my pants! We didn't have school on Friday so Morgan and I jumped in the van and headed south. We decided to surprise my LoveBug pals with visits. Well I believe surprise was an understatement.

Our first stop was Tammy in Louisville. Unfortunately I had to wake her up at 11 at night because there were no hotels to be found in Louisville. She graciously put Morgan and I up for the night. What a fun way to start the weekend. I enjoyed visiting with Tammy and getting to know she and her family better. She and I will be traveling to China together so this will make it even more special.

Next we headed further south to Parksville to see Kim. I think I shocked her socks off. We were waiting for her in her driveway when she got home. When she realized who was sitting there we both went into a screaming tizzy hugfest. It was awesome. It was hard to believe I had never met Kim before because she felt like a long time friend. I spent a couple hours visiting with Kim and Kimmee. Unfortunately Kim is not one of the LoveBugs that I will get to travel with. She will be going a month ahead of me. Then she had to leave so Morgan and I headed out once again.

John, Kim, Rachel and Kimmee

Our next stop was a hotel in Lexington. While there I contacted Sheila, who is about 45 minutes from Lexington. She said to stay in Lexington and she and Jack would head that way in the morning to meet us. Meanwhile Kim called and said she was coming to Lexington and so we all decided to get together for lunch. We spent about 2 hours at Steak and Shake visiting and sharing stories. Sheila is another one of the LoveBugs that I will get to travel with when our time comes.
We said good bye to everyone in Lexington and headed north to Cincinnati, Ohio. In Cincinnati we tracked down Kristin at her church where she works. Another great outcome. One of her employees called her over and at first she did not recognize me. Then when it dawned on her who I was and that I was there to visit her I thought I might have to pick her up off the floor. She immediately invited Morgan and I to spend the night at her home and were awesome hosts. When got to spend the evening and morning with her husband Jim and her two sons Zach and Ben. She too was like seeing an old friend.

Rachel, Kristin and Jim Ben and Zach

After our wonderful visit with the Wootens Morgan and I headed towards home. 950 miles and three days later I can say I have sisters in two other states that I can't wait to see again. It was an awesome-fun trip that I am so glad I decided to take. Now.......if I could just get some of them to come up and see me.........