Another thought

Well, one good thing about being just 10 months "paper" pregnant is that I won't look like this in the Bahamas next weekend........

Today's episode is brought to you by the number 10 and the letter F

Ten months today. Ten loooong months since our log in date. Whoever said time will go by fast is a big fat liar. Well, at least we finally hit the double digits. It's been painfully slow. Which brings us to the letter F. Use your imagination. I am blaming my crankiness on the cough medicine. That and I am going a little stir crazy having not left the house for the last 5 days.

Hoping to go see Kool in the Gang tonight with the rest of our little FCC group, going to take a nap and see how I feel when I wake up. We are both still fighting this "thing" in our system. It must be a mighty contagious thing, I bet 3 out of 4 people I know have it or had it within the last two weeks. And it knocks everyone off their A's for at least two weeks.

Night night.

Tis the Season

Happy Flu Season. It seems everyone was sick, is sick, or is feeling it coming on. I moved from the latter catagory to the middle one this morning. Poor hubbins has no voice and has been coughing for days on end. It was only a matter of time until mine came on full force, no matter how many vitamin C tabs I downed.

I used to get sick a few times a year when I worked in "The Office" environment. Luckily now that I work from home, it's down to just once a year. I think I will spend the day watching the Style Network and drinking hot tea. I am trying to study for an exam I have to take for our business, but my head is too full of cold medication to focus.

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

How wonderful that we now have two New Years celebrations each year, plus a Harvest Moon festival! Tonight we celebrated with the other FCC families at our favoirte spot-Pei Wei. We may need to find a new place soon since we are getting a bit too big for our britches! I love that our group is getting so big, and we really are one big happy (but not disfunctional as most are) family. Hopefully we will all have our adorable babes home for next year's big day!

Here is a little history on the Chinese New Year:

Chinese New Year starts with the New Moon on the first day of the new year and ends on the full moon 15 days later. The 15th day of the new year is called the Lantern Festival, which is celebrated at night with lantern displays and children carrying lanterns in a parade.

The Chinese calendar is based on a combination of lunar and solar movements. The lunar cycle is about 29.5 days. In order to "catch up" with the solar calendar the Chinese insert an extra month once every few years (seven years out of a 19-yearcycle). This is the same as adding an extra day on leap year. This is why, according to the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year falls on a different date each year.

New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are celebrated as a family affair, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. The celebration was traditionally highlighted with a religious ceremony given in honor of Heaven and Earth, the gods of the household and the family ancestors.

The sacrifice to the ancestors, the most vital of all the rituals, united the living members with those who had passed away. Departed relatives are remembered with great respect because they were responsible for laying the foundations for the fortune and glory of the family.

The presence of the ancestors is acknowledged on New Year's Eve with a dinner arranged for them at the family banquet table. The spirits of the ancestors, together with the living, celebrate the onset of the New Year as one great community. The communal feast called "surrounding the stove" or weilu. It symbolizes family unity and honors the past and present generations.

For the Chinese this is the Year of the Pig. The Chinese zodiac follows a twelve year cycle following twelve animals - snake, rat, pig, dog, goat, bull, and another six animals. The zodiac is ranked in order of the animals, who came to pay their respects to Buddha when he was sitting under the tree.

Every twelve year, cycle also starts with the animal current in that year. This year is a new, 12 year cycle beginning with Porky. So this year is- called the Year of the Golden Pig. Which is supposed to bring lots of prosperity and money.

As in Britain, people in other parts of Europe create their own nativity scenes for Christmas. This also happens in the US where stores and hotels will have a small scene of Mary, baby Jesus, a couple of angels, a cow and lambs etc. Similarly the Chinese in Singapore make their own 'nativity' display to celebrate their festivities of the New Year, but with a difference! This year they have Walt Disney type plastic and rubber pig mannequins wearing proper clothes and shoes and standing on two feet offering prayers or welcoming guests. One wonders how they are going to handle the year of the snake or dog?

Despite these animal capers, the Chinese are very good at the almanac - their lunar and solar calendars are very accurate. The Chinese New Year started on Monday 30th. January 1995 because that is when the new moon was 'born'. In quite a ridicules contrast the Muslim scholars go out to sight the moon for Ramadan. If they don't 'see' the moon then the Ramadan is not cancelled but the moon is as assumed to be there anyway!

Whew!

Seems like Fergs is going to be just fine. The doc thinks she probably just ate some bad stuff over the weekend when she was running around our friend's backyard-licked a frog, ate some snails, sipped some chlorine water. Who knows. I am just grateful that she is better. Thanks for all of the doggie wishes!

Now if I could just get them to stop barking in their crates. I have read up on how to stop it, but nothing is working yet. I taught them quiet, and they will stay quiet for a few minutes at a time if I have a treat in my hand. But I need quiet for hours and hours. The funny thing is that Wheatens rarely bark, so Miss Annie is teaching Fergs how to carry on. It's hard to get angry at Fergs though, because unlike the high-pitch, nails on a chalkboard yelp that Annie owns, Fergie sounds like she is really just trying to carry on a conversation. Her little voice is very low and goes up and down in tone. As cute as it is, it has to stop, especially when they decide they want out at 6 am, and mom and dad aren't ready to start their day until 8. Any suggestions?

I need a 12 step program

Hi, my name is Kristen, and I am an RQ addict. HI KRISTEN!

The Rumor Queen is on hiatus right now, apparently she is on a business trip, but I have a sneaky suspicion that is in China getting dd #2. No one knows who she is and she wants to keep it that way. I have seen pictures of people in China with their babies wearing "My mom is not the Rumor Queen" shirts and bibs. For the next few weeks, she will have no posts. She is pretty much mine and every other waiting parent's source of information and rumors. Not only is she "out to lunch" for a while, but the CCAA will probably skip referrals this month because of Chinese New Year. We are also in the review month right now-meaning some worker over there is analyzing every inch of our lives, making sure we are fit to parent. When RQ is around, there are usually rumors around that speak of when and what month is getting out of the review toom.

No rumors, No referrals, No review room info.....how is an anxious waiting parent supossed to deal? Breathe, breathe!

I am feeling a little stressed, like the Yo Quiero dog in the picture.

Cuteness

Well, Fergs is still very much under the weather. We may have to run some blood tests today and hospitalize her overnight. Send a little doggie prayer her way!

Here are a few more pics of the girls for your viewing pleasure.

Bits and Pieces

Wow, well I hate to compare adopting dogs to adopting a baby, but I really think this week has taught me some valuable lessons in mommyhood. I have learned to be patient-Annie is a little devil dog. She is constantly biting her sister's ears and legs and barks ALL OF THE TIME! Having her has taught me that there are alot of areas of my house that need baby proofing. I have also learned to put my dependents before myself. Poor Fergie is so sick, and I get up 4 times a night to clean up throw up from her crate. I love my sleep more than most people. As a matter of fact, my favorite place in the world is my bed. But, I can no longer sleep till 8:59 to be in the office by 9. See, good prepration for the Empress. They are training me well!

This week was David's b-day. We celebrated at Moquila's and at our friends Danny and Heathers on Saturday. We brought the girls up with us (before they got sick) and celebrated with great food, wine and three cakes!

Last night we had a wonderful waiting family meeting, there were three new couples there, so we are no longer last in line. Ed and Wendy brought Sammi's "gotcha day" video-lots of kleenex was used to dry all of our eyes!

Just a quick huge thank you to Kellee, who played Santa and dropped off a big bag of adorable baby clothes for me this morning! It's like a shopping spress without the credit card guilt!!! I have no shame in asking for hand-me-downs. If you are reading this, I will take anything 6 months and up! : )

Noah's Ark

As you know, I have been longing for a dog to create some fun and chaios in our lives ever since Quincy passed. I have been wanting a goldendoodle and David wanted nothing but another Wheaten. Over the past few months I have been going online looking at shelters hoping to find a wheaten or goldendoodle with no luck. People just don't get rid of these dogs since they are so wonderful (and expensive).
On Monday I saw a picture of a wheaten at petfinder.com (at Peggy Adams). I called that day, and even though they were closed someone anwswered the phone. She told me the wheaten was just dropped of Sunday afternoon and another couple had her on hold. I went in yesterday before they opened at 10, not knowing someone had her already, and was told she was on hold till noon. There was also 50 pit bulls, a few lab-mixes, one ugly chihuahua mix and a goldendoodle puppy. Of course, the doodle was also on hold. She was also dropped off Sunday night and they were doing a background check on a lady who wanted her. I ran some errands with my friend Heather (I asked her to meet me because I was a nervous wreck, I needed the Wheaten) and they called me at noon and told me she was mine. I raced back over at 12:01. Well, the girl who had her on hold came in at ten after and was so so so mad. I felt bad, but I just knew she was meant to be mine. Then, on the way out, I saw the goldendoodle from earlier that was also on hold. I told the girl behind the desk good luck with her and her new home-she said that she was available again-the other family didn't work out, so Heather who was with me convinced me to take both. The volunteer that owns a wheaten and said she had a good feeling about me, there must have been 5 other people waiting to take her home. She also said they don't like to adopt out more than one dog per person, but they would make an exception for me. I am sure I pissed off so many people yesterday by taking both girls, but for once I didn;t feel too guilty!

By the way, David knew I was going to look at the Wheaten while he was at an appointment. I told him she was on hold and stuck with the story until I got home. I didn't call David about both because I knew he would say "are you crazy?"! So, my plan just to let him fall in love before he could say no worked. I am a mastermind!

I named the doodle Annie, because she looks like an orphan with her crazy hair. She is 3 months old and is very rambunctious. Fergie-the wheatie, is 6 months old and is very calm and sweet. It's beyond me why anyone would give these girls up. My theory is that they were Christmas gifts for their kids and didn't realize that they take work. Whoever had them (seperate families) did crate train them . They went right into their crates at 9 pm and slept through the night without a peep. Annie knows a few commands, but Fergie knows nothing. They are a workout to walk though, they just want to play, play, play! I love them so much-how could I not take both?

Super Samantha Sunday

We had a wonderful Super Bowl Sunday. We started off at Wendy and Ed's to see Samantha and say happy b-day to Ed. Kim and Todd and Ana and Ron were there as well, so we toasted to Kim and Todd's referral. The Ed put on a "how to change a diaper" presentation for David, Todd and Ron while the girls listened in through the baby monitor and snickered.

Later that day we went to Outdoor World (for 3 hours) and then to his cousin's superbow party and then to our friends Heather and Dannys. We even won the square game and I said I would put that eighty bucks towards the puppy fund. On to that later....

Lots of reasons to be happy today!

1. Of course, seeing Brea's face yesterday

2. CCAA has reveiwed files through February 2006. They have been stuck on them since November. Hopefully they will fly through March and April's so we can breath a sign of relief and know we are on our way.....

3. The 171H bill is under review again with Congress. If it passes, we may not have to redo all of our paperwork.

and 4. (whihc has nothing to do with adoption)...I am 1/3 of the way towards my weight loss goal. My super power abilites to deflect incoming girl scout cookies are working for me!

Living vicariously

I admit it, and don't tell David, but I got like ZERO work done today! Why, you may ask? Not only did referrals come out today, but our good friends Todd and Kim were due to get theirs today. I barely left the computer so that I could wait and wait and wait to see my new "neice's" face! Her name is Brea, and she is so cute and SO young! They are blessed! Here she is!