Thank You Secret Buddy!!

Thank you Secret Buddy!! Once again you sent the perfect gift! It arrived on Friday afternoon.

This months theme was LIGHT UP THE NIGHT and our Secret Buddy sent us this WONDERFUL glow worm that, when you press his stomach, he plays one of 6 tunes. Pumpkin also received a great night light and a book with a matching CD. There was also a lovely card to accompany everything!

Thank you once again Secret Buddy!! You thoughtfulness is GREATLY appreciated!

TA-DA!!!!

Kathy is amazing!!! I am SO IMPRESSED with my new blog look!

Thank you SO MUCH Kathy for all your hard work and the beautiful results!

Anybody want some pretty coloured paper?

So let me set up the scene for you...

There is a group of us at work that are in a lottery pool. We give $10 or $20 to the Lottery Guy and he records how many weeks we have paid for and he buys the tickets for the group.

Today he says "Michelle, you owe me some money - do you have any on you?"

I say "Well actually I DO have money" (This is a RARE occasion - I usually use my Visa for everything and rarely have cash).

So I pull $10 out of my pocket that I had put there that morning cause it was on my dresser. As I pull it out I am feeling it...hmmm feels odd...

I tell Lottery Guy - my money 'feels odd'...I am going to investigate.

Being the super sleuth that I am, I deduce that this $10 note is a FAKE!!!

How do I know this? Well quite a few years ago I was preparing a deposit for work. I went on my merry way and forwarded the funds to Finance for deposit...well, it turns out the money was counterfeit...What a HUGE hullabaloo that was. How was I supposed to know how to recognize counterfeit money? Well after that I made it my mission to know the difference.

I took the magnifying glass to the fake note and was able to tell. THEN I put it in the counterfeit detector and discovered that I was CORRECT...a lot of good that did me, now I am out $10!

Unfortunately when I bought something earlier in the week - another strange time when I had actually cash, they gave me counterfeit money for change!

Mark is going to take the 'pretty coloured paper' to work tomorrow to show everyone...I am going to have to come up with another $10 to give Lottery Guy...

Assistance Please

While I am in agony over my back, it seems that the only chair that is comfortable is my computer chair!! Go figure. The couch is too soft and the other chair in the living room, my feet don't touch the ground. So here I am in front of the computer - poor me...heehee

So while I am sitting here and getting all caught up on my blog reading, I thought I might do some blog maintenance also. I see everyone with all these different headers and I don't know where they get them from. I have tried searching and I don't come up with ANYTHING exciting or nice at all.

If anyone would like to share their secrets with me, I would really appreciate it! Then I will ATTEMPT to change it on my own - that could be interesting!!

Is getting dressed hazardous to your health???

Is getting dressed hazardous to your health??? I am going to have to answer YES to that one!

I don't know what I did, but today when I was getting dressed, I just about collapsed with the SUDDEN pain in my back. HOLY CRAPOLA!! I have NEVER had issues with my back and then BAM today I am dying...

I just can't get comfortable. I have tried sitting, standing and walking and it doesn't seem to help. I don't want to lay down if I can help it... I am going to venture out to the grocery store and the fabric store and hopefully I will be able to get in and out of the car.

This really sucks - I have heard of peoples 'throwing their back out' and wondered what 'stupid' thing they did to 'throw it out' in the first place. I guess I could have gone out naked today, but it is still a little chilly for that!!!

Out of Curiosity...

I am just curious - and this is by no way scientific, but are there people out there who were/are unable to conceive that consume large amounts of aspartame.

I have created a mini poll on the side bar and I would really appreciate it if you participated. Even those people who read and don't comment can participate as it is anonymous.

This is my first poll and I am just kinda figuring things out as I go!

Thanks for helping out!

I don't have a clue...

I guess I am opening myself up to..."something" with a title post like that.

I wanted to update you on number 6000! I don't have a clue! I have no idea who it was. There are many people I can figure out who visit my blog, but there are so many more in which I haven't a clue of who they are...

Oh well, maybe next time when I hit a big number I will send Janet a potato peeler and an prize to Kathy for the most comments to one post!!

Thanks to everyone for the support and thanks for reading!

6000!!!

Holy cow - I am going to reach 6000 hits in the next day!!

Where has the time gone? I remember when I started this blog I wondered is ANYONE would read it!!

I will TRY and figure out who person 6000 is and let you all know!!

Thanks for reading!!

Catching Up...

Last Saturday we celebrated our niece Madison's birthday. She was 5!! Here Madison is modeling the dress up outfit that Mark and I bought for her. We all had a great time at the party and Madison received lots of gifts!

At one point during the party I was helping her put on her "Princess" necklace and she told me that she "was just getting so stylish"!!! I was cracking up! It was just so cute!!

Madison was most pleased to be blowing out her candles!

I am so late in posting this as I forget my camera at Jen's house and I won't get it back until this weekend and I have been waiting for a chance to get pictures from Tracey's camera.

As usual we had a great time and Madison was appropriately spoiled, as a 5 year old should be, by her aunts and uncles!!

I have also updated our quilt site. You can see our updated squares here.

We are up to 44 squares with 56 more to go!! Thank you to everyone who has contributed so far. You have no idea how special this quilt is going to be with all of the good wishes that we have received for Pumpkin!!

If I have promised you a square and have not sent it, please e-mail me.

Waiting Mommies Dinner #3

Last night we had our 3rd Waiting Mommies Dinner! As always, we had a great night. These women are so wonderful and I thoroughly enjoy spending time with all of them.

Last night we had (Back - l to r) Andrea (who says she is going to get a blog), me, Paula and Catherine.

Front row - Jill, Kathy and Laurie.

Once again we had 'D' who took the photos. Next time we get together, 'D' should have her referral - HOW EXCITING!!!

There were presents last night too!! But they have slowed down as we have all mostly exchanged with each other already. Thank you to 'D' for the great picture frame, 'pillow' and square. Thank you to Andrea for the receiving blanket, the socks and the head band. Thanks to Kathy, Jill and Catherine for the treats!!

I am so lucky to have found these wonderful ladies and had the opportunity to spend time with them and call them friends. Also "Pumpkin" will be lucky to have these ladies and their children in her life!

This is a LONG journey and wait is a hard one, but spending time with these wonderful people and meeting other great people has certainly made everything more bearable! Thank you!!

Question about Blogger Comments

Tonight my sister Tracey came over. We were talking about the Spring has Sprung post. I asked her if she had read it and she said yes and she said she left a comment.

I said - I didn't get that comment e-mailed to me. We then went to the e-mail to double check and nope there was no comment e-mail there.

We then went to the post itself, and low and behold, there were 4 comments that were on my post that were NOT e-mailed to me.

This concerns me as I don't generally look at my blog the way others do, I usually only see it from behind the scenes and the e-mailed comments.

Now I am concerned that there are many other comments on my blog that I have never read as they were not e-mailed to me.

Has anyone else had this problem? I am thinking I am going to have to do a lot of backtracking to make sure that I have read all the comments that people so wonderfully left for us.

Spring has Sprung!

Well it appears that, today anyway, spring has sprung!!

I DON'T know this by the extra hour of daylight in the evening that we are currently enjoying.

Nor do I know this by the wonderful BBQ dinner I cooked tonight.

Neither is it the snow that is ALMOST melted.

But what does tell me that Spring has Sprung is the PUNGENT smell of SKUNK that I am currently experiencing!!

Daylight Savings Time

Well today is the first day of daylight savings time. I am still unsure about the earlier change. I was really starting to get used to the sun coming up BEFORE I got to work...now I am going to have to wait a few more weeks for that to happen again. Mind you, I really do like the hour at the end of the day too! What I really need it for all year to have the hours of daylight that we have on June 21st!!

Funny thing about daylight savings is that you have to remember to change the clocks. Last night Mark and I were going to change the clocks, but it was only 9:00 and we were going to be up for some time yet, so we said we would do it before we went to bed...well we didn't think about it again...

The day seems to go REALLY quick when you get up and you are doing your thing and then all of a sudden it is an hour later then you thought it was! Oh well...

However, at this moment yesterday, it was only 9:20 and today at the same time is 10:20 and I am not ready to go to bed yet...I will be sorry about that in the morning when it is still dark...

More Blog Fun!

I saw this on someone else's blog...it was fun to do. Many of the countries that I have been to are so small and they hardly show up in the map!

Mind you, there is only one part of the world that I would like to be in right now...

Visual DNA

Well it seems that all the cool kids are doing this and I didn't want to miss out...

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

It is a fun thing to do!

3 MONTHS DOWN!

Well today marks month 3 in our "official" wait. It is month 15 since we started on this adoption journey and month 38 since we started the 'baby' journey! But month 3 is the only one that matters now.

I am trying to be more positive and these are 3 months that we won't have to wait again!!

Referrals came out yesterday and that is GREAT news - not as many as we would have liked, but each batch brings us a little bit closer!

Happy 3 month LID Anniversary to Dolores & Shawn too - our travel mates!!

Two Parter Post

This is a two parter post...

Part one – THE DREAM

Now I know that everyone has had some weird dreams that relate to the wait for their child. Mine is not so much about the wait as it is about the people.

Last nights dream was about Kathy & Joel and Doris.

Wow – it is really hard to put a dream into words...

In my dream there was a bunch of people in the backyard of the house that I grew up in. The only person I can pick out of the crowd is Doris. There is (and was) a pool in the yard. All of a sudden an air raid siren went off and everyone circle around the pool. The plane came and dropped a bunch of babies in the pool and everyone jumped in to pick a baby!! I know it is WEIRD... There are not enough babies for the number of people there. Doris gets a baby and I do not:( But Doris looks at her baby and decides that her baby is the spitting image of Mark and tells me that I should have this baby and she will wait for the next ‘dropping from the sky’!! Can you believe it? I know it is only a dream, but still...

Does ‘Thanks’ even cover something like that? Thanks Doris!!!

After that we were at my (current) house and there was no baby and no Doris, but Kathy & Joel were there with ‘John’ (I don’t know who this person was). They were in my computer room and it was messy and I kept thinking that I wish I had cleaned it up before they came so they wouldn’t see it like this. We decided we were hungry and I was going to go and make them breakfast but my right eye was stuck shut and I couldn’t get it opened. They then decided that they were going to leave in their ORANGE MINI!!! Kathy was driving and she waved as she drove away...

It was just ODD...


Part two – THE GUEST

On Thursday we ventured out in the snow storm to pick up John (NOT the John from the post above). John is Mark’s friend from Halifax. The guys did a list of errands for me on Friday during the day and went to the movies. We had some mutual friends over for dinner on Friday night.


On Saturday I was sitting upstairs and I could hear them LAUGHING!! I went downstairs and they were watching a movie. There were tears coming out of their eyes – it was fun to watch them having so much fun!!

In the afternoon they went downtown and tooled around there and then they even went to the Leafs game last night with GOLD SEATS!!

This afternoon we are popping my Mark’s parents so they can say hi to John and then John is heading home this evening and he will be missed!

Home Safe and Sound!

My commute to work is about 13km (8 miles). It generally takes me about 15 minutes TOPS to get home from work - I know I am pretty lucky with that!

Today I decided to leave early with all the snow that we were going to be getting...

I think everyone else had the same idea. It took me 1 1/2 hours to get home - it's only 13km!!!

The snow started about 1:30 and I left at 3:00 - These pictures are the 18" drift at our front door! Mark shoveled a path for me when I got home and you can't even see it anymore!

I just want to cuddle up with Mark and a blanket on the couch and eat popcorn for dinner!

Mark's friend is coming into town tonight and we were supposed to pick him up at the airport. His flight is already late and he hasn't even boarded the plane yet! We caught him before he left and asked him to call us when he landed and we would see what the weather was like then and HOPEFULLY we would already be at the airport, otherwise we asked him to take a cab. Even though we are close to the airport, with the current situation, it would take over 2 hours to get there to turn around and come back again.

Lucky us - we are expecting the snow to change to freezing rain in the next hour or two and it is supposed to last for 3 - 6 hours!! Oh Joy Oh Bliss!!