Happy 100th Anniversary UPS!

Matt has worked for UPS for almost 14 years and has to be one of their most loyal employees. He waves at all UPS drivers that we pass on the road even though they don't know him from Adam. The kids have a running game to see if they can be the first to see a UPS truck on the road. They will shout, "UPS TRUCK-I GET A POINT!!!" I find it a bit strange that no one ever accumulates points. Apparently everyone goes back to zero after each sighting... Matt insists that even though our agency sends out all referral info with Fed Ex, they will have to make an exception for us. He refuses to accept such an important delivery from his 'mortal enemy.'

The kiddos at the 100th anniversary celebration.

The kids got to race package cars down a pinewood derby track. Noah's car won!
Taylor and Matt competed against each other in a 'load the truck' competition. Taylor won! Matt wasn't too sore of a loser-he manages a few departments in the customer service center so his loading expectations weren't too high.

Never Say Never

Matt Claims First Major Victory in Almost 14 Years of Marriage

On Friday afternoon, I dragged Xander around Costco, loaded up the basket, waited in line for 30 minutes, loaded up the car, buckled Xander in, started the car and went to release the parking brake and the release felt like it had broke off in my hand. Actually the cable had snapped and the car was stuck with the parking brake on. I tried to fish back into the dashboard and release the brake myself but soon realized that I wasn't going anywhere.

While I waited for Matt to come to my rescue, I decided to take Xander over to Petsmart to kill some time. The Humane Society was there and so was this little (really not so little) guy. He's a 4 month-old lab mix-I'm mortified that he may be mixed with Great Dane. We named him Jackson and have been calling him Jack. (If the name worked for the Ingalls family, it should be good enough for us!) I'm starting to think that 'Clifford' might have been a better choice.

He's doing really well with the kids and we saw him play well with other dogs at the pet store so we have grand hopes of 'puppy play dates' with the neighbors' dogs. He had a 'procedure' on Saturday morning and we picked him up that afternoon. He came home with 'Kennel Cough,' fleas and worms which hasn't enhanced the bonding experience much for me but I'll come around. He's being treated for all three and once we can give him a much needed bath and let him play in the back yard in a couple of weeks, he will be much easier to have around.

He is a really sweet dog. I can't wait to take him along camping, hiking and biking. Matt loves him and the kids are about to bust out of their skins they are so excited to finally have a dog. More pics in the next post. Blogger is being a pain.

And for the record: Lisa, Melissa and Erin-this is partially your fault. ;o)

Ladybug Sightings

Last Monday, I met my friend and fellow Waiting Desert Dweller, Shannon (who PROMISES to have a blog up and running soon), for lunch. McD's works really well for us. The boys can play for hours and we can have a salad and 'China Chat' with few interruptions. It is so good to have a local DTC pal-someone who speaks the language! It always helps when we get together and let it all out, compare home study update notes, etc. Check out the cool treat she brought for us! They are chocolate ladybugs filled with chocolate baby ladybugs-and there are 5 of them!!! We have eaten one and are saving the other one for our anxiously awaited yet dreaded 1 year LIDversary which is coming up on Saturday for us. Thanks Shannon!!!

Ladybug sighting #2 mysteriously appeared in the mail on Saturday. It came in an envelope addressed to our family with our own address as the return address. Sneaky. To make the feat of figuring out who sent it even worse, it had postage attached but no postmark so I don't have a clue where it came from. I would guess that it came from someone local who could have just popped it into our mailbox but it arrived with the rest of our mail and I don't think that whoever sent it would have wasted 2 stamps if they knew they were going to drive by and leave it in our mailbox. I don't recognize the handwriting but thought of comparing it to home study applications to see if one of my China clients could be the culprit. Hee! Hee! This is fun. I do love a surprise but I AM driving myself nuts trying to figure out who is responsible. If it is you, fess up and tell me how you knew that referrals were on their way!!! (FYI-Referrals arrived today for LIDs of October 14-October 24, 2005. 11 Days. Whoop. eee.)
With our LID of March 10, 2005 my latest guesstimation is a referral in December of 2007/travel in February of 2008. We have a sneaky suspicion that Meili will be born in April. That would make her 8 months at referral and 10 months on Gotcha Day. Just for kicks, let me toss out there that I'm guessing that she will be from the Hunan Province. Hard to believe that someday we will have the facts and all of this guessing will be a thing of the past....can't wait.