Chicago

On Thursday night, I went to see the musical Chicago at Gammage. Well worth my time. We sat in the nose bleed section but could still see fine.

Mediterranean cooking class

Took a great cooking class at Sweet Basils in Scottsdale on Thursday night with my long-time friend, Michelle. It was a blast. The chef was really good. The class of 10 people split up to make the 7 different dishes shown below. I have to admit that I had my doubts whether we would be able to complete all the dishes within the three hour class but it all came together.

The finished dishes:
Pork skewers over couscous
Quinoa Tabbouleh
Goat cheese homemade Ravioli with creamy walnut sauce
Lentil, rice and veggie casserole with eggplant sauce
Zucchini balls
Rosemary & lime roasted red snapper with Mediterranean salsa
Zabaglione with quick-poached pears

Pumpkin Festival

Chinese holiday

This week started with National Day in China and comes to an end tomorrow with the Moon Festival. All city offices close for the week.

Photo caption:
An old couple walk through a red lantern gallery in Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006. A total of 300,000 lanterns were hung up in a residential district to greet the National Day holiday. (Qiao Qiming/Xinhua News Agency/WpN)

LID Anniversary

Today marked the one-year anniversary since my log-in date (LID). I went out for Chinese food to celebrate and received a great fortune cookie. My fortune read " Something special is coming your way".

There are 48 days of referrals to get to my LID. If the CCAA can average 24 days per month for the next two months (or some combination that totals 48) then I will receive my referral in November. To get a December referral, the CCAA only needs to average 16 days per month. Things are finally starting to get interesting.

Twins for Kim & Scott

My local adoption friends, Kim and Scott, just received their referral for the most adorable twin girls, Jayden and Jenna!! They turn one next week and hopefully they'll be home for Thanksgiving. I'm so thrilled for them. Congratulations!!

Referrals are in...

Referrals have been posted. This batch covers July 23 through August 9, 18 days total. Not bad. I was hoping for this group to cover August 15 but this can still work. The CCAA would need to cover 24 days in the Oct and Nov referral groups for me to get a Nov referral. I think they can do it but a Dec referral is still definitely a possibility.

Pre-referral pick-me-up

My new toy. A pink nano. Just in case the next batch of referrals is as small or smaller than last month, I figure there is no time like the present to buy myself a referrals-have-to-speed-up-so-cheer-up gift. :D

Secret Pal Revealed...

My fabulous secret pal has revealed herself- Bobbi- soon to be mom of Madison Mei!! You have been a wonderful pal and I want to thank you for all the fun, thoughful gifts you've given Ava over the past 6 months. This month is no exception.

The demin dress is so sweet. I can't wait to see Ava wear it. The farm house sings a toon and has pull out animal pages in the front of the book. I'm sure she'll adore this. But, the best gift of all is the stunning silver/crystal bracelet with Ava's name on it. Did I mention that Bobbi made this bracelet- too cute. I've been looking around for a bracelet to bring to China for Ava and this will be perfect. I LOVE IT!!

Bobbi, with your 8/11 LID, I'm praying that you receive your referral next week. Can't wait to see photos of Madison. I'll be checking your site and following your journey. With Love, Michele and Ava

Introducing my nephew Jason

Weighing in at 7 lbs., 3 oz. and 21" long, Jason Salvatore was born at 12:30 p.m., August 30, 2006. He is just beautiful and so far, very quiet. I'm sure that will change soon enough. Underneath the cap, he has really dark hair. So sweet.

With big brother Alex.

Jason with his dad, Mark.
Proud grandparents, Janet and Sal (a.k.a. Mema & Papa).
Jason with Alex and very excited sister, Bianca. She is already totally in love with him and will be a wonderful big sister.

One step forward, two steps back

The next batch of referrals have started to arrive at some agencies. For the first time since I've been following the rumors (which is for over a year now), there were no rumors as to when this batch would be sent and what days they would go through. Still not completely sure on the latter but it's looking like July 14 through July 22-24. Not too good. Last month's referrals covered 15 days. This month's will only cover 9-11 days. If the CCAA could just complete the very simple task of updating their website in a timely manner, there would be no need to still be guessing on the closing date but...

I didn't think it was possible but the CCAA has just worsened what I considered to be my worst case scenerio- Dec referral with Feb travel. Now I'm thinking the worst case looks more like Feb referral with April travel.

On the upside, with the last batch of referrals arriving so late last month (July 31), in addition to the fact that the CCAA continued it's office move and gave their entire staff (half at a time) a full week off work, this referral group, such as it is, came in about two weeks earlier than what I was expecting.

Ava Bear from Stephe

Stephe sent Ava the most adorable surprise gift. A little bear with her name embroidered on the chest. Thank you Stephe for being so thoughtful!

Alex's Birthday

My nephew Alex turned 18 yesterday. It's hard to believe. I can remember so clearly the day he was born. We spent the entire day waiting for him then he finally came by c-section nearly 15 hours later. He was well worth the wait.

He was beautiful then and he is just as beautiful now! Happy Birthday sweetheart!

Secret Pal Gifts

My wonderful secret pal has sent more great gifts. Next month is the final gift exchange and I can't wait to find out who has been sending these great gifts.
The little blankie and stuffed baby lamb are so soft. I'm sure Ava will love them.
Little did my secret pal know but I've been buying other Little People Farm parts so the wishing well was the perfect addition.

Thank you Secret Pal!

Nothing new

The rumor boards have been pretty quiet this week. With the last referrals coming out on July 27, it's really too soon to be hearing anything reliable. This last batch covered LIDs June 29 through July13, 2005 - 15 days worth of LIDs. This is two more days than the previous month, which was four more than May, which was two more than April, which was two more than in March. Albeit slowly, the process does seem to be picking up speed.

Since this last batch came out a little later in the month than usual, I'm hoping that this month's referrals will come out closer to the 21st or 22nd of the month. If the referrals don't come out until Sept 1st or 2nd, then there will be essentially no August referrals this year.

Redecorating project complete

My living room/ dining room redecorating project is finished. I'm really pleased with how much better the couch looks with the new pillows- some that match the curtains and the ivory ones I found at Pier 1.

The picture frames have been left empty for now. The plan is to add black and white photos from my trip to China.
I recovered the dining room chairs to match the new valances. Still need to find a nice runner for the table. Big thanks goes out to Mom for all her help and also to Dad for putting together the framework for the valances.

Debi's Baby Shower

the highs and the lows

Early last week, the world was a happy place: the referral rumors were positive with the feeling that the CCAA could do all of July's LIDs and I was still 39. Life was good.

By last Thursday, rumors started flying that the cutoff will only go to July 13 (not good). By Friday, the CCAA's long awaited office move began, essentially closing the CCAA for an undisclosed period of time and delaying the next batch of referrals. As everything CCAA goes, there was no warning and it took days just to get a confirmation that this was indeed happening because, of course, an office move is top secret?? By Saturday, a number of international agencies told their clients that the wait is still anticipated to hit 18 to 24 months. And then there was Sunday, my 40th birthday and a fitting end to a crappy week.

Still not sure exactly when to expect this month's referrals. If everything was on schedule, they would come out by Monday. With the move, it's hard to say. It's rumored that they might not send referrals until the beginning of August which further mucks up my timeline. aauugghh!!

All American Baby

My August Secret Pal sent Ava this adorable red, white and blue outfit with matching hair clips. I love it! Sammy, the cat, also received a toy. Thank you secret pal!

Bowling fun

My nieces, Paige and Bianca, slept over last night and we went bowling today. I haven't been bowling in years- we had lots of fun.

Birthday gift

What a great way to start out my day. My friend Donna stopped by my office first thing this morning with a birthday present for me. How fun! Love the scrapbook and all the embellishments. Can't wait to have Ava home to start her scrapbook.
Donna also made me this beautiful handmade card. It's so pretty.
Thank you Donna for being such a great friend and a truly lovely person!

A few photos from the 4th

The girls busy drawing at Aunti Shells.

Another new Tote

I've added another fabric to Ava Totes.

Need 90 days of referrals!

With the last batch of referrals going through June 28, there are now 90 days of referrals left to get to my September 26 LID. Keeping in mind that the referrals have been coming out on the 21st to 25th of the month, here are the possibilities:

July referral = 90 days of referrals in one batch- will never happen.

August referral = 45 day average over two months, although the CCAA has referred more days worth of LIDs than this at one time while trying to catch up in 2003, this is highly unlikely.

September referral = 30 day average over three months, doable.

October referral = 22.5 day average over four months, most likely.

November referral = 18 day average over five months, I consider this my worst case scenerio.