Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and here we sit, being couch potatoes. Jason arrived from Atlanta a few hours ago and we went to eat yummy Mexican food in true Christmas spirit - Feliz Navidad. Jason came to visit for Christmas with his new baby, Xavier Boxlightner 360, who has been giving him a few sleepless nights. Tomorrow we will have marathon food preparation and game playing...followed by more couch potato-ing.

I know right now there are kids all over the world who can't sleep in anticipation of Santa's visit. I remember vividly all the great Christmases we had growing up. Mom and Dad made huge sacrificies to make sure all of us kids were happy on the holiday with tons of presents to open, food to eat and fun times to share. I hope they know how much I appreciate all those special holidays we had together and how much I look forward to next year when we can all be together again.

Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Signs of Christmas

It's only 4 days until Christmas! Jeff and I are being a little bah-humbug-ish this year so these are the only signs in our house that the holiday is really approaching. I have put a few ornaments on one of our plants and Christmas cards on the closet door in the living room. We still haven't sent out our own Christmas cards and I have tons of stuff left to do before Monday. Let's hope that next year I am a lot more organized for the holidays!

Where is our dossier?

Can you see it? I took these pictures off of a parent's website who has recently been in China. They are of the log in and review areas at the CCAA (China Center for Adoption Affairs). Our dossier is somewhere in between log in and review - which means it is somewhere in these huge stacks of other prospective adoptive parents paperwork. It is hard to believe that each of these bundles of paper represents a person or couple that is anxiously awaiting news that they have been blessed with a child. It's kind of amazing that such an awesome and life changing event originates in this sort of massive tree slaughtering, isn't it?

Friday Fun

This morning. Me. Here. Yuck. Need I say more?

Update: That sign says Weight Watchers in case you can't read it :(

Friday Five - Holidays

Here is today's Friday Five - the one word challenge again.

#1 Favorite type of holiday cookie? (OK it can be TWO words if it needs to be! :) )
chocolatepeanutbutteroatmeal or any of Jason' cookies

#2 Do you open your presents in the morning on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve?
the former

#3 You favorite Christmas or Holiday song? (oops once again more than one word!)
New Kids on the Block - Funky Funky Christmas

#4 One word that describes the holiday season for you?
family

#5 One word that exclaims how you feel about the wait for your child?
frustrated

Happy LID-versary to us!

Look at the ticker at the bottom of the page - 6 months down!! In the past 6 months, aside from losing my mind a little bit, Jeff and I have:

• visited London and taken a great cruise through Europe with my parents
• visited my grandparents and family in Orlando
• ran 2 5K races and a 10K race
• visited great friends in North Carolina
• celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary at the beach
• enjoyed a great visit and spent Thanksgiving with the B*ekey crew

In the next 6 months, I hope Jeff and I are much closer to bringing home our baby girl. We look forward to the time when she will do all of these things and so much more as part of our family.

Yes I like country music

I know I may get some ridicule for my choice of music but I must admit that sometimes I do listen to some country...really just the crossover pop country stuff but country nonetheless. Today I was lifting weights at the gym and I had my Ipod on shuffle songs - the Lonestar song "I'm already there" came on and I proceeded to bawl my eyes out at the tricep machine. Lately I have had an extra rough time dealing with the wait for our little girl (haven't I said that before?) so I guess that makes me even more emotional than usual but this put me over the top. Here are some of the lyrics:

I'm already there
Take a look around
I'm the sunshine in your hair
I'm the shadow on the ground
I'm the whisper in the wind
I'm your imaginary friend
And I know I'm in your prayers
Oh I'm already there

We may be a thousand miles apart
But I'll be with you wherever you are

Baw-haw-haw...that's the sounds of me bawling my eyes out at the tricep machine. Maybe the intent of the song isn't to make me think about my baby (who probably isn't born yet) possibly on the other side of the world alone while I long to hold and comfort her but it sure did the trick.

New Hair

So here are some more scary pictures of me. The first is my hair yesterday and the 2nd is today. I am having a hard time getting it to behave like the stylist did. Not too much of a change but at least it's shorter - and it's a little stacked in the back which is difficult because my hair wants to curl like crazy when it's short. Anyway - I am done taking pictures of myself for a while.

In pursuit of beauty

I don't mind sharing a bad picture of myself. This is just a small part of what women endure in pursuit of beauty. Eventually I will post a good picture of the outcome of this hair styling adventure. In the meantime, please share in my laughs as I see the mess that happens in the midst of the beautification process.

Dopey - that's me

I did this Snow White personality test (www.snowwhitetest.com) and can you believe that I am a "Dopey" personality?? I actually felt a little dopey even before the test which is how I foung the site to begin with. I googled dopey hoping to find a cute picture for my blog and found this personality test...I took it and, as fate would have it, I am Dopey after all. Here are some personality traits of "Dopeys":

Dopey people are very flexible, have a simple sense of humor which they use in tense situations.

Dopey is good on the physical plane, he likes to be active and exercise, work well with his hands and is able to master tools with ease.
Dopey is resourceful and takes care of the group by neutralizing tension.
Dopey is a good attention payer.
Dopey is very aware of his senses, the way things look, taste, feel, and smell.
Dopey dwarf people are kind, gentle, and sensitive in their dealings with people.
Dopey tends to be animal lover and appreciate the beauty of nature.
Dopey is original and independent in their view of the world.
While they come across as being carefree and lighthearted, they actually take life very seriously, although they are uncomfortable with theorizing.
Good at looking for practical applications.
Dopeys have no desire to lead or control others, but feel compelled to interact when people they care about may be hurt.
Dopey tends to show his concerns through actions rather than words.
Dopey-dwarf type tends to be artistic.

Of course one of Dopey's traits is not liking to focus on his/her weaknesses so I will leave those out (but if you have extra time on your hands and REALLY want to see then you can go here --> http://www.snowwhitetest.com/idopey/. :)

Friends

Jeff and I took a trip to North Carolina this weekend with our friends Sythan and Josh (and of course their adorable son, Caleb) from Georgia to visit our friends Lee and Vinay. We really had a great time and I can't say enough about how great Lee and Vinay were to us. They really went out of their way to make sure we had a good time and to make sure we didn't have to worry about a thing. I truly truly truly appreciate having such great friends and am reminded again of how fortunate I am to have great people in my life.

Sythan, Josh, Caleb, Jeff and I spent 5 1/2 hours in the car each way together and it made the Road Trip enjoyable and speedy. I had so much fun playing with Caleb and miss him already! It's great how some "Peek-A-Boo" can make the hours fly by. :)

5 Things that Lee did that make her a fantastic and

selfless hostess(in no specific order):

*She slept on the floor (yes, the FLOOR) so that Jeff and I could have her room.
*When we woke up Sunday morning, she had breakfast already ready for us and she and Vinay made us fantastic spaghetti for lunch on Saturday (they are multi-talented - doctors, home improvement gurus, chefs and technology pros).
*She made my birthday so special by having a Tweety balloon for me when we got there and a delicious M&M ice cream cake from Carvel late that night - I felt like a queen.
*She made us feel completely at home every minute of our trip.
*Finally, she was herself. All spunk, laughter, sincerity, caring and amazing uniqueness.

Thanks to Lee and Vinay and to Sythan, Josh and Caleb for making this past weekend fantastic!!

Geek gear

So my awesome and gadget obsessed brother got me this cool device for my b-day. Strange - it keeps my ears warm in the cold and spontaneously noise comes out of it...and I can't forget the cool blue blinking light that it has. Seriously I was on my way out of the office this morning and had it on and someone told me I was missing an earring...this is the funkiest looking earring I have ever had...thanks Jason!!

8,321 miles

This is the distance between our home city and Guangzhou, China where our adoption will be finalized and where we will depart China to bring our baby girl home...some time in the next decade (fingers crossed for sooner rather than later). Stay tuned for an upcoming project relating to this very interesting fact...

Toe Jam

Ha ha! We went to Vulcan Park on Jason's birthday and there was Vulcan's foot in the museum. Jason thought he would make a funny and hold his nose...who's feet do you think are stinkier? Just kidding of course (hee hee).

I AM the King of the World

Jeff took over his rulership status on Thanksgiving Day when he won the first annual Black Jack tournament at the Massey house. He ended up with over 1600 pts/dollars in our chips. Too bad we can't turn this in for real dinero at the cashier.

Feliz Cumpleanos to Jason

Ok so he may not be smiling but that's cause he's getting old. We attacked Jason with suction balls when he came out of the bathroom this morning and then forced him to pose with his Sponge Bob stuff. Happy Birthday Jason!

Geesh - I didn't know 6.2 miles was sooo long.

Jeff and I played like we are athletic and ran a 10K on Thanksgiving day. This was a lame attempt to rid us of the guilt of 1000s of calories to be consumed later in the day. I ran this race last year (of course I was a lot more fit then) but this was Jeff's first turkey day race. I am very proud of us because we finished and we didn't even crawl across the finish line. These pictures were taken by Jason who was waiting for us at the end (along with Dad). In no particular order...

Me at the end about to die

Jeff and I relaxing and reflecting on how heinous the hills on the course were.

Jeff and I before the race

Jeff about to cross the finish line (I'm so proud of him!!)

Man - what was I thinking with this mess?

Hee hee - I am so glad we did this race but I think I need to train some more before the next 10K. We are thinking about the Mercedes Half-Marathon in February but that is TWICE the distance of this race...I guess only time will tell.

Gobble Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving! Today has been a good day - Jeff and I started with a 10k race and we actually finished without passing out. We just got finished eating a feast and now we are all hanging out playing the Wii. I am so thankful to have our family together today. We are truly blessed today and every day.

Wii got it!

After sitting for 3 hours on the concrete floor of the Wal-Mart Garden Center last night and collecting our vouchers giving us the "POWER" to purchase one of the twenty Nintendo Wii's that were available today, we are finally in possession of 2 (yes, not 1 but 2!!) Nintendo Wii's. Here you see Jeff and Dad posing with their vouchers, the #1 and #2 vouchers themselves (yes we were first in line) and the happy men this morning after successful Wii purchasing. Now the real fun begins - learning how to use the nunchuk feature without beating each other up - hee hee.

Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, CINCO!

If you look at my blog you may not look at the ticker at the bottom of the screen every time but, trust me, it's there. Yesterday it made another landmark - it hit 5 months since our Log In Date. 5 WHOLE MONTHS! This is since our paperwork made it to China and was registered with the CCAA who will eventually match us with our child. So what is the significance of 5? Not a whole lot really since we don't know how long the actual wait will be but I did do a google search for "five" and came up with the following:

• Five is the third smallest prime number, after 2 and 3 but before 7
• A polygon with five sides is a pentagon
• Everyone should eat five servings of fruits and veggies every day
• Of course, hands and feet have five philanges
• In East Asian tradition, there are five elements: (water, fire, earth, wood and metal)
• In Cantonese, "five" sounds like the word "not" (symbol: 唔). When five appears in front of a lucky number, e.g. "58", the result is considered unlucky.
• There are lots of musical groups that use the number five: The Jackson Five, Ben Folds Five, Five for Fighting and a British boy band named 5ive.

Ok - that is enough useless information for today. I hope everyone has a good day!!

Ho ho ho! or Ha ha ha!

Hee hee hee - Dad and I went for a nice run this evening and stopped by Publix on the way home. They were having this great holiday food tasting and festivities with a special appearance by Santa and his main Elf (shall we called him Eli Elf?). Of course I had to chase Santa and Eli down the aisle and ask them to pose for a blog-able picture with Dad. How fun!

Drooling in progress

I had to go to the dreaded dentist today. In spite of my adoration for my fantastic dentist, I still get icky in the stomach in anticipation of my visits with him. Today I had to have some more-than-routine stuff done so I am numb almost from ear to ear. While the numbness persists I am giggling as I drink water through one side of my mouth and feel it come right out the other side. I hope I am still as giddy when the novocaine wears off.


P.S. I like to post with a picture but didn't want to gross anyone out with teeth pictures so here I am pre-dentist saying "Hi!".

Cars, cars and more shiny cars

Dad and I went on an excursion to the Alabama International Auto Show today...what a way to spend his first full day here. Jeff and I are so glad to have him here and I really don't mind doing manly things like going to car shows. Here Dad is with his "if I were really rich and didn't know what to do with all my money" car, the Porsche something, sitting behind the wheel of the "in actuality I could afford this car for my tootle around mobile" Honda Fit, and the "this is the brand new version of my current car" 2007 Honda CRV.

The weather was nice today, we had a great time at the car show and Dad is slowly getting rid of his jet lag...definitely no complaints here!

Nowhere to sleep

Dad, in all his gadget addicted self, has been ordering all kinds of stuff lately so every day when I come home there are packages either stuffed strategically in the mailbox or sitting on the porch where the mail/UPS/FedEx man has made a visit. They are now covering the bed in the spare bedroom... This just goes to show that Dad truly is a madman internet shopper - is there a 12 step program for this?

A woman's dream come true...

I forgot to add one thing about our trip to the beach - there was an amazing outlet there! I think this is the biggest outlet that I have ever been to and they definitely had stores of all types. I came away with a pair of running shoes for Jeff, a pair of wedge knee boots for me and a couple miscellaneous small purchases. I would highly reccommend a visit to this place for anyone with a little mall-rat in them. Here is a link to the outlet website - http://www.silversandsoutlet.com/ .
Update:I've added a picture of my new boots...cute, huh?

Splitsville

I am so sorry for those of you who are finding out about this for the first time...Britney has officially filed for divorce from K-Fed. After we all deal with the shock of these happenings, we must find a way to have faith again that true love does prevail. So, so sad...

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=240825&GT1=7702

I know I'm bad.

Back to real life...

How fitting that it should be rainy when we leave the beach. Here is a picture of Destin from the bridge that took us away from that pretty place...


And my attempt to capture some of the pretty leaves as we approached home...

8 miles on a bike...

...and my booty hurts. This morning we rode and rode and rode, stopped at the beach, rested on a bench at a nice little lake and then rode some more. It was nice this morning but clouds and wind are rolling in for this evening...it looks like our last night at the beach will be indoors. :(

The King of Chicken Wings

Jeff has now experienced some of the best chicken wings he has ever had. He was so happy he that even consented and posed for a picture which he NEVER does. We went to Beef O'Brady's for dinner - luckily we do have one of these in B'ham also and we plan to take Brandee there so she can have the heavenly wing experience too.

A note about the picture quality: These were taken with my phone so sorry about the quality - I'll make sure to carry the digital camera with me on the next wing quest.

Life's a beach

Today was another nice day - aside from the 5 hours reserved for the Nascar race. This morning we had breakfast (as referenced by the previous post), went for a 3 mile run, walked about 2 miles on the beach and I did a little touring on my own while Jeff prepped for his sports overdose. I took a really nice walk on the nature trail here at the resort, took a break to swing on the swings, watched some butterflies and then abandoned nature for the outlets. It is just unbelievably gorgeous here...and today was so warm - I was actually sweating most of the day. Only 2 more days until we are freezing back in B'ham....
The pictures above are (click for slideshow): 1& 2) some pretty butterflies 3) my feet as I was swinging on the swings at the nature trail 4-7) some pics of the resort and the village right near our hotel - there are lots of cute shops, boutiques, restaurants and nightclubs there - less than a block from us 8 &9) Jeff on the beach (artistic again) and the pretty water

Who's bright idea?

We started this beautiful day at the beach with another breakfast at the IHOP...and then 5 minutes later we went for a run. Both Jeff and I had stomach cramps and stitches and felt downright icky. Who's bright idea was that? I won't name names but I will point.

Oh my aching belly!

Our anniversary dinner was "All you can eat" boiled shrimp from Floyd's Shrimp House (see our shells). We felt almost obligated to eat 2 servings of shrimp so now we are stuffed. It was pretty good though. After almost 6 miles of biking and a 4 mile run I was hungry but not thaaat hungry. :)

Day 2 of our trip and neat photo tool

Today in Destin Jeff and I woke up and went to eat the IHOP (fun fun). The adventure of today was riding bikes across the resort (total of 5.6 miles). We rode to the beach and had lunch outside, then took our shoes off and walked along the beach. It is absolutely gorgeous here. It was freezing this morning but it warmed up so nicely - I was riding bikes in a tank top. We stopped in the little village by our hotel for ice cream and right now Jeff is catching up on the college football score while I rest a few minutes.

I am experimenting with this hack thing of Flickr that I took from a pro-Chinese adoption blogger whose blog I stalk. Click on the image for a slideshow. Let me know what you think.

Pictures: 1)someone prepping for a wedding on the beach 2) Jeff walking on the beach 3) ditto 4) Jeff's feet (artistic photography at work) 5) the pretty beach in Destin 6) some strange photo shoot that was happening on the beach 7) more pretty beach 8) Nicole posing :) 9) beach again 10) Nicole at the marina 11& 12) views of the resort 13 & 14) view from our hotel room 15-17) our room 18) USS Alabama in Mobile 19) downtown Mobile from the car 20) Golden Moon resort 21) our departure

Friday Five in one word

The challenge for this week's Friday Five was to answer each question with just one word.

#1 What do you think of when you think of China?
mybabygirl
#2 What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of babies?
mybabygirl
#3 If you could describe yourself in one word what would it be?
momtomybabygirl
#4 What is the first thing you think when you think of Gotcha moment?
happinesswithmybabygirl
#5 One word to describe the entire adoption process?
nuts

So I took a little creative liberty. Hee hee.

5 years ago tonight...

Jeff and I were on the brink of making the ultimate commitment to each other. We were making bouquets, folding programs, doing a trial run on my hair, worrying that the weather might cooperate, etc., etc. If I could go back and be a little birdy on my own shoulder during that time I would say "Don't worry - you are about to make the best move of your life." Through the last five years we have had ups and downs, tears and laughter but not one single moment of regret. Geesh, I hope that man knows how much I love him - even more today than 5 years ago. I do know how unbelievably cheesy I am - no need to mention it.

I have to also mention that 33 years ago tonight, Mom and Dad were getting ready to make the same commitment to each other. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!