Better!

This has been a much better week. Everyone is fine and the car has been repaired. Friday we enjoyed a casual pot luck to Sienna's school, Saturday we hung out at the UCLA Festival of books (always a great event) and Sunday we helped celebrate Aunt Harriet's 70th at Maggione's. In between we bought supplies to do the Wainscote on Brooke's nursery walls. It should look cute with the baseboard, beadboard then the chair rail. Above the chair rail we may put a cute border and then the wall is painted pink. Very very girlie...I hope we are not surprised. We also have to paint the blinds off white because the natural wood color does not work well with the pink color.

On the somewhat good side the CCAA processed through to November 1st. Although this was just 6 days they were huge days and we were nervous that they would not get through the rest of October. It is also very uplifting to be in November with only 35 days ahead of us. I am hoping they can get November done in 3 months and we can get our referral in September! Keep your fingers crossed as it does look like less babies are being referred this year. Fall travel would be much better for us being we could avoid that summer oven. Let's hope the latest we get our referral is September. That would put travel at October or November.

Unbelievable!

What a week.

1. Mom was admitted to the hospital last Sunday with breathing issues and fluid on the lungs. She was sent home Thursday and is receiving at home care. Still unknown as to whether she had congestive heart failure or Pneumonia.

2. I developed an oil cyst that was unbearable for 4 days and then finally burst. On Wednesday I had to have it drained.

3. On Thursday a lady made an illegal left turn and hit our car with Sienna and I in it on the way to work and daycare. We are fine the car is not.

4. John who has been sick with a Sinus infection finally got meds on Friday and then developed a bad dental problem and had to have emergency root canal on Sunday.

While all this was going on we were able to somehow paint the guest room?

Quiet time.

It was a relatively quiet weekend. I made good progress on the quilt project and the nursery. We decided to purchase some very serene pink paint for the upper wall and do a beadboard wainscote on the lower wall in off white. We will top off with a chair rail and maybe a wallpaper border. The colors for the nursery is a sage green and soft pink with red (lady bugs) and black accents. It should turn out very cute. I also found a great quilt store that was recommended by my Kiwanis friend Alice Smith. I found some nice material for the Girly Swap. The place Candy's Quiltworks said they would publish my 100 wishes quilt fabric request in the newsletter and post it in the store. Wow, that was really nice.

That's about it for now Sienna has a cold and John is not feeling too well so we are taking it easy.

SAD

Sadly our agency did not recieve any referrals this month. This is now two months in a row.

Bummer!

It is confirmed that there were only 2 days of refferals this month October 25th and October 26th. I think the effect for us is as if this month never occured. This will probably knock us out of any probability of seeing a referral this July. I would say now that we are looking at Aug/Sept for a referral with travel Sept/Oct. This could also lead into November as there is a national holiday in China the first of Oct. and a trade show at the the end of Oct. This is so frustrating, with a December 6th LID date and only 41 days ahead of us we were seeing the end of this part of the journey...So close yet so far away. Our paperwork has been in China now for over 16months!

In other news, we enjoyed the weekend and had seders both on Saturday and Sunday. We also had an Easter brunch on Sunday and an Easter Egg Hunt. It was a very busy weekend of cooking and socializing. Now I am happy to get back to work for a much needed rest.

Happy Birthday Sienna! Happy Pesach!

It has been a very crazy week. On Monday I cooked like crazy for Sienna's little birthday celebration at school and for a seder/birthday at our house on Tues. Basically it was nonstop for 3 days straight.

In addition work has been crazy. Mike has been gone this week and there were two credits needing special attention. So basically I have been working with the President of the Bank to deal with one of them. The interesting thing is that I have never experienced a Bank President wanting to be this hands on involved. I have turned into a VIG, Very Important Grunt. I don't know whether to be impressed or offended?

Lastly, referrals from China are due any day and it is looking like the worst progress report since we began this journey. In fact CCAA may only refer two log in dates this month. Last month they got to October 24th, 2005 and this month they may only get to October 26th, 2005 I spoke with our agency and they indicated proudly that they were confident we would have our referral by the end of the year. I thought they were joking but apparently the joke is on us. With our LID of 12/6/05 we feel so close yet so far away.

Happy Birthday Sienna !

On Tuesday Sienna is turning 3. She had a wonderful party with her friends at Creative Leap . The guest of honor was visited by none other than Mickey Mouse. He entertained the kids with a magic show, games, and balloon animals. The kids also enjoyed climbing on the structures and bouncing in obstacle course bouncer.

It was a busy weekend for Sienna because we attended Tot Shabbat (always a favorite) on Friday night and Isabella Solis' birthday party at gymboree. The girls are only a few days apart. Her mom and I were in the same hospital at the same time for our deliveries, making both girls birthday's very special for all of us.

Tonight is the first night of Passover and I intend to make Sienna birthday cupcakes (Kosher for Passover of course) for our family Seder on Tuesday and to bring to school tomorrow.