Congratulations! ***UPDATE***

I couldn't let this day go by without congratulating PIPO and Kelli on their referrals!

Since the CCAA finished off February in 2008, according to this site we now move up to a prospective referral on October 31 2011. I know it doesn't sound great, believe me, but IF this is true we're less than three years to Little Maple. I'm ALMOST at the point where I can accept it (I don't really have a choice)...it's not what we wanted or obviously how long we wanted it to take, but it WILL happen.

I can't wait for the March referrals to start rolling in...I have a number of friends who are finally getting theirs SO soon.

***Holy cow, I just looked up our prospective referral date here, I didn't look to see that we're officially UNDER 200 days until OUR referral.***

Boxing Day shopping

I checked my email last night and I got one from my (new) FAVOURITE store saying that they were having a Boxing Day sale. Every "holiday" item (let's be real, they're almost all Christmas-y) was buy one, get one free. The email mentioned that the sale was NOT going to be in stores, but I thought that was silly and was debating about buying all my stuff online. Then I started thinking...I'd have to pay for postage and handling (which goes by weight), and I'd end up not saving very much.

So, I called up my local Lush store and asked if they were having a sale. The saleslady replied "OH YEAH!" (she sounded a bit like the Koolaid guy before he smashes through a wall). I asked her if it was the same as the online sale and she said "no". As I started to feel a bit dejected, she then added "our sale is better!"

When I got to the till, she told me that the bath bombs weren't "buy one, get one free"...they were "buy one, get TWO free".

In the end I got eight bars of soap, six bath bombs, the four bottles of Snow Fairy, a bubble bath bar (and a partridge in a pear tree). Ahhh, I'm in heaven. :)

If you have a Lush store near you, don't walk...RUN for this sale. :)

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukkah!

Whichever holiday you celebrate, I hope you're with your family and having a wonderful get together!

To enjoy the video, turn off the music in the sidebar first...

I tried looking for Chanukkah-themed cat pics, but sadly, I couldn't find any that amused me... so you'll have to settle for this instead. :P

They say it's your birthday...

...well Happy Birthday, K2!

Go wish him a happy birthday now...and make sure he's not lying on the floor in a candy daze.

Add it to the list...

(Posted by Josh)

I realize that some of you are digging out from mountains of snow, but it took this long for me to find the time to write about our trip up to the Bruce Peninsula.

The Bruce Peninsula is a narrow strip of land that juts out into Georgian Bay/Lake Huron and is famous for shipwrecks, rock climbing and spectacular fall colours.
















The region is also home to Canada’s answer to Groundhog Day – Wiarton Willy. He is a rather plump white groundhog who represents the only reason to visit Wiarton.

We did our bit for the economy and bought a stuffed Wiarton Willy. Willy sits in the back seat on my car along with other plush zoo animals, securely belted into the back seat. On one visit to Nic, Tim and Zubin, the whole zoo was sitting happily in my car and no-one questioned why there were five stuffed animals belted into my car. My answer at the border…safety first!

These pictures were taken at Inglis Falls Conservation area and Tobermory. It was here we saw fall colours, waterfalls and heard gunfire. We later discovered that there was hunting range nearby and could hear the rifle shots in the distance. Signs warned us to wear bright clothing. We were both wearing dark clothes and were in some heavy brush. We would have been better off with orange vests and doing a silly walk a la John Cleese to avoid being shot.












































The rustic charm on the region was confirmed by the soda-pop machines that were converted to sell “live bait” (freshness guaranteed) at the local milk store. Yech!






























I realize there are all sorts of places in Toronto that had fall colours, but this place is special. It’s the very end of the Niagara escarpment; it has Ontario history going back at least 150 years, with natural history going back to the last ice age. It is a place I one day hope to take little one.
















For a split-second I imagined myself holding a little hand, walking through the crunching leaves explaining to her why the rocks look the way they do, why the leaves turn colour and having a debate as to who will have the bigger tummy-ache on the drive home, her or her Mother, after visiting Tobermory’s own “Sweet Shop”. This sweet shop is an island of yumminess in an ocean or crappy truck stops and greasy spoons. Add it to the list…

27 months...

Today marks our 27 month LIDiversary, and since my new motto is that "chocolate cures everything", I decided to put that into full effect by making an obscenely fattening and scrumpdilicious chocolate turtle cheesecake. The recipe can be found here. It turned out REALLY well, the only change I would make is adding extra finely chopped pecans to the crust, there wasn't quite enough to fill the bottom of the pan. If any of you want to make it, I'd suggest another half a cup.

Have you stopped drooling yet?

We met up with our good friend D (who some of you met at our housewarming last year) and went out for dinner. We went to a really good Ethiopian restaurant and stuffed our faces until we begged for mercy ate leisurely.

Afterwards we came back to our place and had a SMALL piece of cheesecake. We had to. Really.

If anyone wants to come over for a piece of cheesecake, we have TONS leftover...seriously. :)













This month I added a charm that was sent to us by Doris, Dan and Daisy. The charm is a daisy which represents her sweet dog. :)

She also sent me a note attached to the charm that said this was from her bracelet, but she wanted Little Maple to have the charm and she loved the idea of passing it on to her.

So do I.

Thank you SO much for the beautiful charm. I'm sure little one will treasure it always. :)

Happy birthday, Headda!

Today is her birthday...go wish her a good one!

Bullet train...

- It looks probable, unfortunately, that this great gal missed out on her referral this month. The only positive thing I can say about it is that she's NEXT! Unless, of course, they decide to slow things down by doing an hourly referral next time...

- Today marks the two year LIDiversary for her and her. It sucks...big time.

- Today also marks Tim's birthday. Woo! Go wish him a happy birthday. :)

- I've been sick for the past few days. Nasty sick. Achy back, sore stomach sick. Tossing my cookies up. SICK. Not sure what's wrong, but whenever anything goes around, I'm always the first person to get it. It's going to make things FUN when we have little one.

- A friend, J, sent me this and it tickled me...so I thought I would share it.

- Yesterday we had our ducks ducts cleaned. They found all sorts of stuff in there from when we had our bathroom remodel completed a few months ago. There was a bunch of plaster bits and lord knows what else. We noticed a little while ago that the den wasn't getting as warm as it should, so we decided to bite the proverbial bullet and get the ducts cleaned. We also got the furnace serviced...woo.

- I haven't done this in a while, so I'm going to shake the lurker tree and see who falls out...if you're reading, leave a comment. It won't crash you anymore...honest.

- We lead such exciting lives...

Dreams

I went out for dinner with my mom last night and while we were talking, she mentioned that she had a dream about "Little Maple". She's never had a dream about her before, but she wanted to tell me about it.

She doesn't know where she was during the dream or who else was in the room, but she saw our daughter's face. She had jet black hair and said that she had more hair than Josh (which, if you've met him, isn't a hard thing to accomplish). ;)

My mom also mentioned that little one was wearing these shoes. *sigh*

I haven't dreamed about our daughter yet, that's not to say I haven't daydreamed, but I've never been able to make it seem real even in my dreams.

One day it will happen...it has to.

Weekend at Nic's

We had some shoppy goodness this weekend in Buffalo. Before we went to Nic and Tim's we went to the Walden Galleria mall where I had some fun walking back and forth between the two Bath and Body Works stores. They had a coupon that if you spent $10.00 or more, you can get a free item worth up to $13.00...you better believe that I took FULL advantage of that. Of course, they say that there's only one coupon per person, but I bought a robe, slippers and a neck warmer thingamajig at one of their Galleria locations, got something free, and then went to their other location and bought more. Not to outdo myself, I went back to the first store, bought more (but made sure I went to another cashier). ;)

Afterwards, Josh and I went to see Nic, Tim and (the ever adorable) Zubin. We had a blast!

I swear Zubin gets cuter ever time we see him (if that's even possible). He had no problem warming up to us and he even shared all his Thomas the Tank Engine trains. He kept walking between Josh and I and taking them out of my hands and giving them to Josh, and vice versa. It was so sweet. He also shared his stuffed turtles with us.

After a while, he walked over to me and handed me three books which I read to him. Seeing that he was so comfortable with me, sitting on my lap, Nic handed me three more books. By the end of the fifth book, he fell asleep on my lap. *sigh* It was SO wonderful having a little one asleep on my lap...

We went out for dinner at Mamasan's for some super nummy food and delicious Thai iced tea. We HAVE to get back there, it was that good. After dinner we went to see the new Bond film. It was ok, but it wasn't as good as previous ones. The entire way home, the boys were discussing the pros and cons of the film (as well as the others). It was pretty funny and Nic and I couldn't stop laughing at them. ;)

The next morning we met up again and went out for a quick bite and then said our goodbyes. We had to get on the road because a storm was blowing in and there were near white-out conditions on the highway. Not fun.

By the time we got back to Buffalo, the snow had stopped, so we went for more shoppy goodness. Josh went his own way and went to the Ralph Lauren store and got a couple woolen sweaters. The silly boy let me loose in a mall with a Coach store. ;)

This is my new love...

Happy (American) Thanksgiving!

Hope restored...for now

This morning I went to the mailbox and found a package from PIPO. Unfortunately I had to go to the evil place work, so I couldn't open it right away...and it was driving me nuts.
















When I came home, I ripped the package open with all due speed gingerly removed the wrapping and took a peek inside. She wrote a sweet note to "Little Maple's Mama and Papa". It was really nice seeing that in print, even though it's still a while until we get to that point.
















Inside the package were THE cutest little Robeez shoes I've ever seen! How appropriate are they?

It restored my faith (a little) to open the package, especially when it came from someone who is SO close to her referral. I hope, beyond hope, that next week is her week. I can't wait to see a picture of her little one...

Soon, my friend...SO soon.

Vacuuming? It's for the...cats

Feeling it...

For some reason these lyrics speak to me on so many levels.

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, pillars of sand...

I feel it can relate SO easily to our attempts, our failures, our hopes and our dreams...

Sometimes I feel like it's never going to happen.

Yearly checkup...

A couple of weeks ago Deuce got a postcard in the mail. Yes, my cat. Every year our veterinary clinic sends out a reminder that he's due for his shots and a general checkup...basically they put him up on the hoist and rotate his tires. ;)

We decided to take him in yesterday so they could check him over.

We waited about 20 minutes for the vet, which isn't too bad...though really we were the only ones in the clinic. I'm sure they were busy downstairs with their other 'patients'. While we were in the waiting room, since it was so quiet, we heard one of the doctors being paged. Apparently "Hazel the Bunny" wanted to talk to her and get an update. Yes, when an owner calls up, they page the doctor as if it's the animal on the phone...I guess it's easier to find the file. It just sounded hilarious and Josh and I both laughed.

As an aside, years ago I used to work at this clinic. One day Josh came to pick me up and he asked for me by name. The receptionist looked in the computer, and said "there's nobody here by that name". He looked at her and said "two legs, not four!" That story still makes me giggle after all that time.

Anyways, the vet came up to see Deuce and took him downstairs to give him his shots and I wanted her to look at his chin. Every so often Deuce gets a breakout on his chin...yes, my cat has acne...but other than that he's in great shape.

She came back up and gave us something to put on the acne. The vet said he was well-behaved, which is saying a lot.

We used to have to take him in loaded up on Valium (don't worry, he was alright) because he was a holy terror there. At one point, a few years ago, they needed three techs to hold down our little kitty while the vet looked at him. The vet told us that this time he was great and he does better with minimal holding. You think? How would you react if you had three people holding you down? Wait, don't answer that, I don't wanna know...

She told us that Deuce gained half a pound this year and while it's not a great amount of weight, this puts him over the 15 pound mark. I know that sounds like a lot, but he's a BIG cat. Whenever anyone sees him, they're always shocked by his size (I mean his length and height...not his weight). He's half Maine Coon and half tabby...

The vet also mentioned that Deuce has a bit of plaque build-up on one side of his teeth. Apparently he's been eating on only one side, she's not sure if he has a sore tooth or if it's just the way he eats. I have noticed this, but I didn't think anything of it. She wants us to bring him in to X-ray his teeth in a few weeks to see if anything is wrong. *sigh*

While we were at the clinic we picked up more food for him, we paid the freaking expensive bill and we left.

When we got home, I looked over the bill and noticed that they charged for canine food, not feline. I had Josh call up and tell them, so now we have a bit of a credit on our account. Woo.

Deuce was a bit groggy for part of the day and he was extra-clingy, but overall he did very well. :)

26 down...

Today marks our 26 month LIDiversary and we decided to 'celebrate' it with a chocolate cake. Whenever you're feeling down, chocolate seems to fix things...

It was funny, in a sick and twisted way, when Josh was taking the candles off the plate and he put them on the counter, he placed them backwards. I really don't want to think about a 62 month LIDiversary...really I don't.

I also added a charm chosen by Sam to our LIDiversary bracelet. She chose that for obvious reasons, being that she's a redhead and all. We had the pleasure of meeting her and her husband last year when they were in town. Good times, great people.

I know a couple of months ago someone asked for a picture of the bracelet with all the charms on it to date, but I'm going to wait to post that until the bracelet is finished...

I had a facelift... ***UPDATE***

...or at least my blog did. I can't tell you how much I LOVE it! It's all thanks to Danielle. If you ever feel that you need a new blog look, by all means contact her. She was *extremely* helpful, really easy to work with and always had time to tweak things even when I kept changing my mind.

I wanted to keep one element from my old blog - the shoes with the LID in the header - I had always loved that part from when Heather originally 'pimped' my blog.

I know a lot of you had trouble viewing my blog in the past, but I think all the problems are finally taken care of. If you have any issues...I mean viewing issues please let me know... ;)

Also, if any of you know how I can make the song (that my friend E wrote in the sidebar under the CCAA box) autoplay, please let me know. I've been trying to get that to work forever, but it doesn't want to work with me.

***UPDATE: The song is playing now...Danielle figured out what was wrong and fixed it. WOO!***

The kindness of strangers...

I'll get back to the title of the post a bit later, but last night Michelle, Cari, and I finally got to meet Juliette and we all went out for dinner.

The first restaurant we were going to head to was closed for a private party, so we ended up at Kelsey's instead. We sat around and talked for quite a while before we ordered and we talked about everything adoption-related. After dinner, we were still talking and Juliette showed us pictures of her ADORABLE daughter, Maelle.

Maelle made each of us a little picture with stickers and she drew hearts all over the page. It was SO sweet. Juliette also gave each of us a pair of Robeez.

While we were talking, the waitress came over and asked if we wanted any dessert. We thought about it for a millisecond and then we each got one. Cari was trying to be good by not ordering one, but we swayed her to the dark side. ;)

Now, getting back to the title of the post...

Cari talked to our waitress about a petition she's gathering signatures for...it's to get equal maternity leave for adoptive parents. Our waitress (Adrianne) opened up and talked about how she's got family and friends who have been adopted or are going through the process. She asked Cari why she was putting the petition together and she explained that we are all in the process of adopting. Adrianne told us that she's got a boyfriend and they're going to wait to have kids, and so on. Anyways, we all thought she was very sweet and that was the end of it.

When the bills came, I looked at mine and noticed that the dessert wasn't on my bill. It wasn't on Michelle's, Cari's or Juliette's either...we were thinking of telling Adrianne about the desserts not being on the bill. That's when we noticed a pile of candies on the table with a piece of paper underneath it.

Written on the piece of paper was the following:

Ladies,

I think it is wonderful what you are all attempting to do. There are so many children who need lovely, caring homes which you are all unselfishly willing to provide. It is truly lovely. Dessert's on us tonight, we are the ones that can stand to be a bit more generous.

Thanks,
Adrianne

Is that not THE sweetest thing you've ever seen/read? Who does that? I swear I was about to cry when we were reading it. While we were paying our bills, the manager came over and saw Juliette trying to take a picture of the note (so we could all have it), and offered to photocopy it for us. She came back with the photocopies and then took our picture.

For Doris

Enough said...

SO excited!

I can't tell you all how excited I am about the election results, even though I'm in Canada. I'm not going to gloat about it, but WOO HOO!

Funny story, I was watching the results pour in last night when the phone rang. I answered it, and the person on the other end of the line asked me a question. I swear I must have stared at the phone like the RCA dog.

Pollster: HI! I'm calling people in your area to find out which way you voted.
Me: (Staring blankly at the phone) What?
Pollster: Can you tell me which way you voted?
Me: Umm.
Pollster: Can I speak with anyone in the household that voted?
Me: (Laughing) No.

*CLICK*

I guess the moron pollster didn't realize she was calling a phone number in Canada. All I could do was laugh. Though I wish I was as creative as Johnny. When I recounted the story to him, he said I should have told the pollster that I voted for "The Queen". HA!

One for them...five for me! ***UPDATE***

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone...I know what I'll be eating handing out tonight! Anyone up for leftovers? ;)

***Yup, those are eyeballs. Gumball eyeballs, no less. Josh saw them in the store and HAD to have them...BOYS! He took a bunch of them into work today to share...I wouldn't let him take my candy the candy we're handing out to the kids tonight.***

We're umbrella challenged...

On Sunday, Josh and I finally got to meet Spitgirl (E) and her husband A. I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but she's nicknamed Spitgirl because she used to beatbox. I've known her online for a good eight years, but we never met.

She and A met us at our house and I gave them the $.50 tour of our place and I think they fell in love with Deuce. Thankfully he was on his best behaviour and didn't hiss...sometimes he can get a bit finicky when we have people over. I'm starting to wonder if he's getting a bit mellow in his 'old age'. Anyways, we sat around and talked for about half an hour and then hopped into the car and made our way through a torrential downpour bit of rain to Niagara-on-the-Lake and Niagara Falls.

We got out of the car at Niagara-on-the-Lake to stretch our legs a bit, even though it was raining, we wanted to show them a bit of the town. I took a big umbrella, and as soon as we crossed the street, it popped...badly...like inside out and nearly flew away. Thankfully I had wrapped the strap around my wrist or it would have gone POOF...it happened two or three times. Spitgirl undid her umbrella and was about to open it, when it went *sproing* out of her hands and fell on the ground. It was not good...Funny, but not good.

We continued walking and talking some more and then got back in the car and headed to Niagara Falls. The weather turned progressively worse. The sun came out...in the distance, but it was taunting us...that's when then thunder and lightning started. :P

When we got to the Falls, that's when the heavy downpour started. Thankfully we had a couple extra umbrellas.

Since the weather was so shitacular, there were no crowds to contend with and we were able to find a parking spot relatively easily. We went to the pay parking area, and we saw a sign that said they charged $20.00, but I guess since it was fairly late and raining heavily, nobody wanted to come out and collect the money. Bonus!

We walked around (I hobbled) for a bit and took in the sights. A had never seen the Falls before, so we showed him both Falls. Since it was getting a bit late and the weather was getting progressively worse, we got back into the car and headed back to T.O. and went out for dinner...for sushi!

We went to our favourite sushi place (Ichiban) and E introduced us to a new dish we had never tried before...which we both LOVED called jap chae (it's Korean). It's basically translucent noodles with vegetables in a 'special sauce'. I have no idea what's in the sauce, but can we say YUM?!

We sat in the restaurant, for a while and had more great conversations, but it was over too quickly. We drove them back to our place to get their car and then we had to say our fond farewells.

Good times...good people.

What goes bump in the night...?

Me!

Down a flight of stairs.

How awesome is that?

I was about to walk down the stairs Thursday night, when for some reason I decided to look up and see where Deuce was. Seeing that he was safe and sound, all curled up at the top of the stairs, I proceeded to go ass over tea kettle and fall down the curved stairs to the bottom. Apparently I let out a "blood curdling scream" (I think Josh exaggerated), which made Josh come downstairs to find me at the bottom of the stairs with my slippers having shot off my feet and sitting in the living room. I'm sure I looked like quite a sight.

Nothing's broken. I'm just in A LOT of pain in my back, neck, knee and ankle. How much of a freaking klutz am I? I'm really pissed about this...we're meeting "Spitgirl" on Sunday and I'm all achy. Way to make an impression. I feel like the 100 year old (wo)man.

Pickles, anyone?!

* I meant to make mention of this on previous posts, but that little snail at the top of the screen is really starting to annoy me. He's now inching his way towards 10 years. TEN YEARS!

* Along the same lines, I did a bit of quick match today. There are 210 days of dossiers until the CCAA gets to us. If they refer a week at a time until they get to our dossier, that means we're going to be logged in for 30 more months. Frightening. Not that I didn't already know that on some level, but to work it out mathematically really puts things into perspective.

* My mom took Josh and I out for Chinese food tonight and we were sitting there enjoying our dinner when a gentleman walked in with a bag. He sat down at a table and put the bag down and bellied up to the bar and ordered a drink (for those who care, he had a double bloody caesar). He stared at the bartender and watched with amazement as he made the drink and then went down to sit at his table and ordered his meal. He opened his bag and he took out the contents and carefully placed it on the table. My mom, Josh and I stared at each other and broke down laughing our asses off.

*He had a bottle of pickles. A BOTTLE OF PICKLES! Who brings a bottle of pickles to a Chinese restaurant?! Seriously?

*Once his food arrived, he opened the jar of pickles and poured them over his food (brine and all)...mmmm tasty. I couldn't stop staring...

Laughing til it hurts...

For some reason this just tickles me and I can't stop laughing...I keep thinking of the Swedish Chef. ;)

Bullet-y goodness...

* I haven't been feeling the bloggy thing for a while, so I've just been posting pics of cats. Woo. Things are just THAT exciting around here. Heh.

* Actually, Josh and I went on a long road trip on the Thanksgiving long weekend, but I've been too lazy to blog about it. We went to Owen Sound, Wiarton and Tobermory to check out the fall colours...and OH MY DAWG were they fantastic! We had always talked about doing a long road trip like that, but we were always busy or the weather was crappy, or a hundred other excuses came up...but this year we decided to take the bull by the proverbial horns and go. We couldn't have had better weather. One of these days I'll have to upload the pictures...

* When we were in Owen Sound we had a waitress at the hotel who told us that it was her second shift. We assumed that she meant that it was her second shift at the restaurant...we soon found out that it was her second shift EVER. She had to be shown everything at OUR table. We ordered a bottle of wine and, no word of a lie, this girl didn't know how to open it. The manager of the restaurant had to give her step-by-step lessons on how to open a freaking bottle of wine. Seriously! Who doesn't know how to open a bottle of wine? We asked her what the soup of the day was and she had to run to the kitchen and ask. When we finally placed our orders, she had to come back and ask us what sides we wanted. After she brought out the openers, I was going to ask her if any bread came with the meal, but I feared that her head would explode...We felt badly for her, so we didn't complain, but seriously...I SO wouldn't stand for that if she wasn't a 'newbie'.


* The funny thing was, she claimed that she used to be a bartender in Niagara Falls, our table was right by the bar, so we heard her talking to the rest of the staff when anyone ordered a drink. She was supposed to mix drinks for some customers (I guess they didn't have a bartender), and she didn't know how to mix ANY drinks, let alone which glass goes with which drink...and that goes back to my previous point. HOW could she be a bartender and not know how to open a bottle of wine?! Oh well.

* When it came time for dessert, we were just relaxing and enjoying the scenery, but the waitress kept coming back and asking us what we wanted. Josh turned to her and said "we're resting and contemplating the universe". She had a look on her face like the RCA dog and came back a couple minutes later and said "Are you still resting?" Heh. Josh said "Yes." and we continued to look out the window. She came back another few minutes later (having not gotten a clue, having not passed GO and not collected $200), and asked again. We ordered dessert and cappuccino, but she said she didn't know if they had that, so she brought us coffee instead.

* I have a feeling she isn't going to be employed at that hotel for very long. :P

* It's been freaking SNOWING today...for several hours! Thankfully the ground isn't cold enough so the snow hasn't been staying. UGH! I'm SO not ready for the winter.

* I'm finally going to meet Spitgirl (yeah yeah, I know bad nickname but there's a reason for it) and her husband this weekend when they come to town! I'd link to her blog, but I don't know if she wants that or not...so oh well. Anyways we're going to take them on a trip to Niagara Falls to check out the "waterfall"...and then out for sushi! I can't wait...

Tag...and I'm it!

I was tagged recently by Jen and Jeff but hadn't gotten around to doing it...I haven't done one of these in eons.

I'm supposed to list 7 weird or random things about myself...let's see. I think everything's pretty much out there already, but I'll try to come up with something...

1. I'm a Bath and Body Works fiend. Seriously. The staff at the new store already know me (not by name - yet - but give it time, the store has only been open a little over a month). My linen closet has an entire shelf devoted to B&BW products. I'd ALMOST be embarrassed if the stuff didn't smell so damn good. The one thing that bums me out is some of their products aren't available here yet, and they don't ship to Canada on their website. BOO!

2. I LOVE Tim Horton's ice cappucinos...anytime, anywhere. I think it's almost as strong an addiction as my B&BW one. ;)

3. I can bend my left thumb behind my hand. It's a fun party trick.

4. I love to travel and can't wait to go away...hopefully sometime in December if all goes well! I don't want to say anything yet in case it doesn't pan out...

5. I'm scared of clowns, really...or at least I used to be. Ever since my brother (AKA Ugly) MADE me watch Poltergeist when I was younger, yes he tortured me when we were kids, I've had a thing about clowns. (You all know the scene I'm talking about, right?) I used to check under my bed every night for a good couple of years (yes, years). What made it worse was that I had a clown picture in my room that my mom made for me, which ironically will be hanging in "Little Maple's" room whenever we get her. It's sitting in there now.

6. I love, love, love sushi. Can't get enough of the stuff. Mmmmmmm.

7. I have a photographic memory, it freaks people out. I can sing most any song on the radio (albeit, badly). I remember just about everything...it's weird. I had a get-together with friends from public school recently and I was telling stories about things and they just looked at me like the RCA dog and said "How do you remember this stuff?!" I wish I knew...

If you're reading this, consider yourself tagged!

For Senja

...because I wub you too.

25 months...

For this month, we decided to put M&M's choice of a charm on the bracelet since it was SO appropriate in so many ways.





I was going to get a pumpkin pie to tie in with the theme, but I thought that was a bit too kitchy, so I went with a simple apple pie. Mmmm...warm from the oven apple pie. Nothing better than that!

Happy Canadian turkey day!

Well...what do you make of this?

As you all know a referral batch came out recently (about a week or so ago) that went from February 9th to 15th. It wasn't terribly large, but not terribly small either. We're still looking, according to this site at a referral sometime in October 2011. Yeah, whatever.

Anyways, I found out today that ANOTHER batch came out.

Yeah, I know! How strange is that?! I don't remember a batch ever coming out back to back like this before. It was only a day (February 16th), but still, it's something. I'm not really sure what to make of it, but I have to admit I'm surprised and for once, I'm surprised in a good way. :)

Congrats to everyone who will be seeing their child's face for the first time in the next few days!

What the holy hell?!

I was watching the news just now and saw the above article and couldn't believe what I was seeing. For those of you that don't know, we're having a Federal election in Canada right now (election day is just over a week away).

Anyways, apparently in a couple of ridings there are people who don't like the Liberals and have not only been defacing signs and spray painting houses that have the signs on the lawns, but now the vandals have actually been cutting the brake lines! Let me say that again...vandals are cutting BRAKE LINES of people who leave their cars in their driveway if they have a Liberal sign on their lawn. What the holy hell is that?!

I can't even wrap my mind around that. Not that there's any sense in vandalizing a sign or someone's house with graffiti...but to actually crawl under someone's car and CUT the brake line. I've never heard of anything this scary or disturbing in my life regarding elections.

Let's hope your repair guy is better qualified...

Hi, we just got a burglar alarm at your house...

So I was minding my business at my mom's condo today, helping her unpack when my cell phone rang. I was putting some things in her breakfront and I asked her to get my cell phone and answer it, which she did. She said it was the alarm company and passed me the phone. The voice on the other end said that there was a breach in security and then my phone hung up on the guy.

GREAT!

Ten seconds later, my phone rang again and he called back and said the same thing. He said that he tried to reach my husband, but he couldn't get through to him because they didn't have his current business phone number and his cell phone was off. He has a lovely habit of always having his cell off...he figures if HE doesn't need to use it, why should he have it on? I mean, really, nobody would ever have to reach HIM in case of emergency...GRAH!

I called Josh at work and told him to leave ASAP and meet me at home.

The alarm company tried to call me at home, but as I said I was out, and it's a good thing I had my cell phone. I mean, we gave the company enough numbers, they would have kept going down the list until they reached someone...

Needless to say, I FREAKED the hell out. My mom drove like a bat out of hell me home to find a security guard in his car in our driveway waiting for me. He said he did a perimeter search and didn't find any signs of forced entry and that everything seemed fine.

I asked him to walk around the outside of the house with me, and he did so, though he seemed very preoccupied. Whatever.

I asked him his name and he said "Chambers". I was thinking "Is that your name or is that what just exploded in my chest?"

I didn't want to walk into the house alone (obviously) and asked him to accompany me. He said there was no need.

Ques'que fuck? Are you kidding me? I insisted and he agreed, but he stood at the front door while my mom and I walked around the house...this guy must have graduated at the bottom of the Mickey Mouse School of Security Guards. I was not impressed, our house IS armed to the teeth, but still, the guy should have walked around with us...at the VERY least.

While we were doing this, the company called and asked if everything was ok, and told us where the breach was. Apparently it was on one of the motion sensors...our sweet pain in the ass kitty, must have tripped it. The sensors are supposed to be 'pet immune'. We've had the sensors for about a year now and this is the first time this has happened.

Goooo Deuce!

Red light...Green light...now with kitty action! ***UPDATE***

***Sorry to say, that's not Deuce. The only thing that we've done with Deuce can be found here. While it's not a video, it was equally amusing...Ahhh, memories. ;)***

SO happy...

Today was a very good day...Bath and Body Works FINALLY opened at a mall near me! Yes, girls and boy, there's a store within about a 10 minute drive of my house.

I spent about half an hour inhaling deeply while Josh sat on a bench wandering around the store and spent a small fortune. I have to say that I was VERY pleasantly surprised that the prices were the same as they are in the States on most items. WOO!

The only thing they don't have are the scented shampoos, which they aren't getting in until January or February...which sucks. I'll have to make a run for the border for those, but in the meantime I'm a VERY happy camper.

To add to my over joy, the saleslady screwed up when she was ringing up my items so I ended up paying about $13.50 less...SA-WEET!

2 years...

This month, since I've known her for two years, I thought it was only fitting to honour her on our two year LIDiversary. :)

In the last post I mentioned that there was a reason why Josh got me the crystal ice wine glasses. During one of his recent trips to Halifax he found a winery that sells maple wine. Yes, that's right, wine made with maple syrup. So since our 2 year LIDiversary was steamrolling towards us fast approaching, he decided to pick up a few bottles. Added to that, he thought, what better idea than to celebrate my birthday with six BEAUTIFUL ice wine crystal glasses!

Not to be outdone, I had a little surprise for him.

I'm not sure who started this, so my apologizes, but I ripped this off gleefully absconded the graphic from someone's blog and decided to surprise Josh with a picture cake for our two year LIDiversary. Truth be told, I had NO idea what I was doing, so I had to beg, plead, and cajole ask K1 to tweak the image and I have to say she did an AMAZING job with it!






















Tonight we had my mom, her boyfriend and Josh's parents over to partake in the cake and have a toast with our new crystal. I'll share with you part of Josh's toast...

"To short waits and healthy children..."

My birthday present...

(First of all, I want to thank all of you for wishing me a happy birthday in the previous post! It was much appreciated.) :)

Since Josh missed my birthday, as he's away on business, he thoughtfully sent me a pressie! Apparently the Purolator deliveryman came to the door, but must have scratched at it, because he certainly didn't ring the doorbell. Anyways, he left a card on the door on Tuesday, so I had to go to their head office the following day.



The delivery card was addressed TO Josh and it was FROM Josh (apparently someone at Purolator made a boo-boo), but try explaining that to them...it wasn't easy. I had to go with all my ID. When I finally got the box home, Deuce was very interested to see what Josh had sent us!


When I opened the box I found three beautifully wrapped boxes.



I didn't want to open up all of them. I wanted Josh to see how nicely they were wrapped when he arrives home on the weekend.



When I took off the wrapping, this is what I found inside...



Josh ordered a set of six ice wine glasses from Nova Scotian Crystal. (The picture, unfortunately, doesn't do it justice...the glasses are GORGEOUS!)

We'll be using them on Saturday night, but you'll have to check in then to find out why he sent them. :)

Since I haven't embarrassed myself lately...

Here you go! Could this picture BE any more 70s? From the bowl haircut, the hippie-ish clothes, the Adidas (I think) running shoes, to the double Fonzie thumbs up? I mean really, what was I thinking?! I've been taking a trip down memory lane, as it were, since coming across some old family pictures. Seriously though, how trippy is that?

I guess I'm just feeling a bit nostalgic today for a lot of reasons...oh well. Things all work out in the end, right?

Anyways, there is a reason for my embarrassing picture, I think. It's my birthday. Woo.

Double thumbs up to all of you!

All over the place...

Today marks 20 years since Josh and I went out on our first date.

We were so young.

I remember how we used to talk all those years ago (when things started to turn serious), about our future and how we would have a big family. How we would have anywhere between three and five children.

Here we are still waiting for our first.

I'm just glad that the CCAA finally made it into February. When I checked China Adoption Forecast the other day, it actually knocked a month off our wait with this recent batch. So our projected referral might get here in October 2011. Yay!

Anyways, he's off on yet ANOTHER trip out east on business and won't be back for a little bit. He missed our anniversary last month and he's going to miss my birthday next week.

Sucks to be me. ;)

The end of summer...

Josh and I went to The Ex on Sunday...we probably haven't gone in about 10 years or so. We went to the Air Show and saw an F16 (holy crap was that LOUD), a bunch of other planes and the Snowbirds. Can you say impressive?!

We walked our feet off, and to reward ourselves, we simply HAD to get some of these...

I swear, there's nothing better than these donuts buried in icing sugar. Really. It's better than ALMOST anything. Just don't tell Josh I said that. ;)



After getting our MOST nutritious snack, we walked towards the games and won a bunch of crap stuffed animals! Woo!

We kept playing the 'birthday game' until I won this GI-FREAKING-NORMOUS panda. I refused to give up playing...(it probably would have been much cheaper if I had just bought the damn thing). Anyways, on our way home, we decided that safety should always come first...so this is how he came home...



I told Josh that he needs to stay in the backseat until we get our referral, but something tells me that Josh won't keep him in our car for the next X number of years. I mean, really, how would he explain it when he goes through the security gates at work and his co-workers see THAT on the monitors... ;)

Happy birthday, Michelle!

It's Michelle's birthday today, so go over and wish her a happy birthday!

You oughta be in pictures...

The bathroom demo and reno is FINALLY complete (and in record time I might add)! I can't tell you how happy I am with it. It took just over a week and it looks so good, the pictures just don't do it justice. I'm so glad that the old bathroom (the one where it looked like the 70s threw up) is gone!

So, without further adieu...The pics are up for all of you and for Josh as well, since he's still away on business and he's checking in on the blog from afar. :)

Our brown bathroom:

The colour on the wall isn't as dark as it shows in this picture, I couldn't get the 'true' colour to come out, but it's a light beige-y brown (called "bluffs" by Benjamin Moore). Unfortunately the picture makes the colour look like it's mustard, but trust me, it's not...

We got the fixture at Home Depot of all places and I'm really happy with it. I'm glad to be rid of the really fugly monstrosity that we had hanging in our bathrooms before.


This is our new floor which is just SO yummy and luxurious.






The wall which is just so...GRAH! To say that I love it would be an absolute understatement.




Looking at the tiles and the tub together really completes the look. Can you believe that the saleslady tried to talk me out of my choice? She told me that the tiles:


a) didn't match

b) wouldn't match the tub

Yeah, ok...

Here's just a simple shot of the new shower...yay!












This is the new floor in our en suite bathroom, it looks just like marble but not nearly as cha-chingy. We painted the walls in this room a light grey called "iced cube silver" (by Benjamin Moore).



New en suite walls (and ceiling).






Rub-a-dub-dub...the completed look.







Ta-da!












We also painted our powder room on the main floor. The previous owners had painted it a (nasty) pink, but I changed it to "decorator's white". It was starting to make me twitch everytime I went in there...

Unfortunately none of the pictures came out in their 'true' colours, but the bathrooms look SO good now.