My nephew. He looks a little drunk in this picture, but I promise you that he's not. He's just out of a bath, and my sister thought it would be funny to wrap a hand towel around him like a "big boy"! See all the hair he is getting??? 

Weekend

My weekend was really good. I got to spend lots of time with my nephew, who is too cute for his own good. I also got to spend some time with my sister and brother in law and we always have fun together so it was really good.  My nephew has learned to roll over stomach to back, so we spent most of the weekend asking him to roll over (kind of like you do with your dog?) He is such a happy kid, he squeals and laughs and smiles and waves his arms in pinwheel shapes. He just lights up my heart.

 

Another happy thing that happened this weekend was that I got a SURPRISE from Ruby Cate in the mail!! It is the CUTEST little dress with ducky pockets and ladybug slippers AND a funny book called Sheep in a Jeep. It totally made my day and I can’t wait until I have Miss Emily home so I can put her in that outfit!  So fun. And so nice of Amy & Ruby to think of me when I was having a bad week!!

 

That’s it for now. Its month end, so work should be insanely busy for the rest of the week. Actually, I like it that way, makes the day go by faster, and it makes me feel important and needed, so you know, that’s a good thing!

 

Pictures of my nephew and the gift from Amy are on the way! Stay tuned!!

 

 

 

LOOKIE

LOOKIE!!! I have a profile picture! YAY! Thanks to everyone who gave me tips on how to do this. I’m so super cool now. I don’t have to be Shannon 7 on M3’s blog now. Hee hee hee

 

 

The baby blanket from my Nov DTC secret pal! 

Profile picture

How do I get a picture up as part of my profile? I see this under the “edit your profile”   Photo URL _____________________

And it wants me to put in a URL. What does that mean? I use Hello to send pictures to my blog, so….most of my photos are .jpeg files. How do I get it to have a URL? What does URL even stand for??  I’m sure this is one of those DUH things if you already know the answer, but I don’t know, so be nice.  If you can help, leave me a comment. Thanks!

 

 

 

 

Bedding yes

OK…So I decided that I can live with this bedding for Emily’s room. I like the ladybugs, I like the red checks. Her room is a pale yellow right now, so I could put green accents in without clashing, so. YAY. I made a decision.  I think I’m going to go ahead and register. I found this stuff at JC Penny. So it wasn’t too pricy. And who knows, it could go on sale sometime in the next 7 months, right? LOL

 

In other news, I’ve been participating in 2 swaps through my Nov DTC group. I got a really pretty baby blanket last week through my secret pal (picture coming soon) and 2 cutie pink flowered bibs. They are both so small. Its hard to imagine I’ll belong with anything small enough to use these items. Still it was really nice to get fun stuff in the mail, and its been fun picking out stuff to send to other folks as well.  I think this will be a fun way to enjoy the wait.

 

Not much else to report. I’m slammed with work these days, catching up on being out last week. I’m trying not to drown, but its not looking good.  Wish me luck!

 

 

 

Ladybug bedding for Emily. Yes or No? 

Baby Bedding

It is time for me to start looking at cribs and bedding. If I have to order something and it takes 8 or 10 weeks to come in, I probably should make a decision by the end of March, right? Plus, I should really pick a THEME for Emily’s room, if I’m going to pick one. With that in mind, what do we think of this?  I can’t make up my mind!! I like it, but is it GIRLY enough? Then again, I’m not a big fan of pink. I like purple a lot, but I don’t think I want a whole purple room. *sigh*  Why do there have to be a bazillion choices? 

 

I'M ALIVE!

Hiya folks!

Well I’m back from the land of the sick. Thank GOD! I spent almost the entire weekend in bed, or camped out on my couch watching tv, but I have to say I feel a lot better. So much better that I actually made it to work ON TIME today, something I didn’t manage all last week. So this is good. The chiropractor really seems to have helped my back ache, which is fantastic news.  I’m going back tonight after work to get “cricked” again, and although it’s unpleasant while I’m there, I can’t deny that its working.  The only time I really hurt now is when I go from sitting to standing (or vice versa) Once I get into a position, I’m fine, its just getting there that hurts a bit.  My nausea still seems persistent. The doctor gave me a couple things to try, and they work, but not so great that I don’t notice it anymore. I’m not in pain anymore, but I don’t feel quite right yet either.  I’m going to give them a few more days, and if I still feel like this, I will go back and make them run more tests. And for the record, I’m not pregnant - about 4 people asked me on Friday, including the nurse at my doctor’s office. She seemed so disappointed when I told her I wasn’t. She actually said, “Oh, I was hoping for something FUN today”   Sorry to disappoint you then. I just have your run of the mill stomach illness. Whatever.  Is pregnancy fun in any case? I never heard anyone describe it that way before. Sick, tired, uncomfortable. Those are the words people use. Not FUN.

 

I have so much work to catch up on. And my house is a total wreck, which is not good, because I’m having a Party Light candle party Thursday night, so I’ve got to get cleaning up the place. ( If anyone in the Charlotte area likes these candles, you are more then welcome to come by. Just email me privately and I will give you directions.  I’ve had great luck meeting bloggy people, so I don’t mind at all.)   

 

Thanks for all your kind thoughts and good wishes while I was under the weather. It perked me up quite a bit! Thanks y’all!

 

 

 

STILL ICKY

Just to fill you in, I’m still not feeling that great. My back hurts, although not as bad as it did earlier this week. I went to the chiropractor on Wednesday, and it seemed to help. I’m going back this afternoon.  My head cold seems to be clearing up, which is great news. The only bad thing is that my stomach has been really yucky since Monday. I thought that it was a reaction to the meds I took for my back, but I stopped taking them Monday night, and I’m still sick. I just got back from the doctor, and he seems to be as in the dark as I am. Its not my appendix, and its not my gall bladder (he doesn’t think) and I don’t appear to be bleeding internally SOOOO he gave me a whole new slew of medication to try. I feel a bit like a human guinea pig. He left me with these comforting words, “if you feel worse tomorrow, go to the emergency room”  Well WHEW, so glad I cleared that up!!  I spent three HOURS at the doctor and that is all I got.  

 

Do you ever feel like God is pointing and laughing at you? And maybe rubbing his hands evilly and cackling? MUUUUUUU HA HA HA HA.   I suppose I’m over-reacting, but I’ve been sick and in pain for about a week now. I’m allowed to over-react. I don’t do pain well.  BOO!!

 

 

 

 

 

sick

I have the plague. Or maybe I’m just reading a book about that, so it is what comes to mind. I have a wicked head cold, on Sunday my back went out (literally) and now the medicine I take to make my back all relaxed is making me throw up. I know, I’m sharing too much. Like a MORON I came to work this morning, but I’m going home soon to crawl painfully back into bed and lie completely still on my back while I try not to blow my nose too hard. Thank goodness for puff’s plus. My nose would have fallen off by now, I’m sure.   

Moan, groan, cough, sniff. I need sympathy!!!

Shannon's of the World, UNITE!

I have met a lot of interesting and groovy people thanks to my blog. I’m cool like that, what can I say? One of the neatest things, for me anyway, is finding the existence of other GIRLS named Shannon. For some reason in the South, Shannon is a boy’s name. More specifically a BIG guy that plays football name. I could have let it give me a complex, but really I love my name, so I just think THEY are the weird ones.   That is until I ventured into Bloggy Land!  Now I’ve got Shannon’s out the wahoo. Check it out: this  Shannon lives down the street from me. I would never have met her if not for blogs! Then there is this Shannon, another single mom to be. And one more Shannon, out there in bloggy land and she is a scrapbooker! 

So…Girl Shannon’s of the world UNITE!!  Are there other cool Shannons out there??

 

 

BLUE

I’ve been feeling blue the last few days. I’ve been insanely busy, trying to do a million things to keep my mind occupied, but the truth is I’m sad about the wait for Emily. I. WANT. HER. HOME. NOW. It is killing me that it could be another 11 months before I get to hug her and kiss her little face and bring her home with me. All these silly delays are going to make me insane. I feel like so much of my life is on hold because I don’t know when she is coming home. Like, should I take a week off this year and go visit friends that have recently had babies, or should I hoard all my time off for when I go to China, in case I get to go 2006, even though it looks like I won’t get to China until Jan 2007?  Should I register NOW, or should I wait until Sept or October in case some of the stuff I register for isn’t available by the end of the year? I hate this. And before anyone jumps down my back, I know that when I signed up for an adoption from China, that I was getting myself into this wait & see mess. I know it, and I knew it all along, but it isn’t necessarily making me feel any better about it now.   It’s just bumming me out. And it doesn’t seem to make a difference how much other stuff I do, it’s just always there with me.

 

On to other things. To recap my weekend: Dinner with Single Parents was great. I was surprised actually how great it was. Something about everyone being on equal footing at Chuck E Cheese, I just felt much better about the group. I talked to a lot of the moms, and I’m really looking forward to the next meeting. J

 

My life book group was also fabulous. There was some overlap with single moms there, so I knew 2 or 3 of the women already, which was nice. I got excited about planning Emily’s book. Ironically, it also made me a bit sad, because all the other moms there already had their girls home, and they will have more to do than I do, because I can’t scrap pages about things that haven’t happened yet. Still, if I can get some of it done before she comes home, that is definitely a plus. So I’m going to concentrate on that, and on getting organized.

            Super Bowl commercials were ok this year. I think my favorite were the Ameriquest, Don’t Judge Too Quickly ones and the Magic Beer Fridge one from Budweiser.  And I’m glad the Steelers won, because my boss is a huge fan, and this week has definitely been pleasant as a result of their win. HA HA HA

 

 

 

 

Anniversaries

This week at work has been pretty crazy. It’s month end in the land of finance, so there has been a lot of scrambling on my part to get everything done ON TIME. It happens every month. I’m used to it, but still, its stressful. In any case, all this working for a living has totally overshadowed a couple of anniversaries for me.

 

1^st  I’ve lived in Charlotte 8 years!! I moved here Jan 31, 1998.  Now that I understand where everything is, I really like it here. Charlotte is a very difficult city to navigate, primarily because they do this thing where they change the name of the road you are on about every other stoplight. YOU haven’t really gone anywhere, yet the street name has gone through 3 changes. Imagine moving to a city where this is the first time you’ve ever encountered this. I can not tell you how many times I turned around thinking I was lost, but really I wasn’t.  They also do this screwed up thing where half the street names are really the same word, but different endings. Like Sharon Rd. COMPLETELY different then Sharon Rd West.  It’s not like the west end of the same road. It’s a whole different street in a different part of town.   Needless to say, very confusing. SO. Now that I know all the secrets of Charlotte driving, I’m in like Flynn.  I really like it here, and while I might move to SC in the next few years, it will be so close to Charlotte that it won’t feel any different.

 

2^nd  I’ve been Logged In at least a month. My agency has not yet provided me an official log in date, and I’m going to go with the belief that they are never going to give me any other date then 1 month after my DTC. SO…even though I think it didn’t take a month to log me in, I’m going with an LID of 12/30/05. That means I’ve been logged in just over a month. Only 8 to 11 months left to wait for a referral. WOO HOO!!

 

Other than all this marking time stuff, I have a busy weekend planned. Tonight is Single Parent Dinner. I think we need a cute name other than single parents, don’t you? Like Ladybug Ladies or something. It doesn’t have to be ladybugs, I know some of you hate the bug. (although I admit I don’t get that, but whatever. Everyone’s different) But you know, some catchy name. Those old ladies have the Purple Hat club, and I want a fun name too! Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

In the morning is Life Book group. Tomorrow afternoon, Brownie Planning Meeting. Sunday is lunch with my folks (hopefully) and Super Bowl party at good friends Jeff & Jill’s.   Any down time in there, I’m sticking with my commitment to make February the Clean Out the Crap Month, and I’m attacking one of the closets in Emily’s room.  I’m starting my Ebay pile. 

 

So that is my weekend. I love weekends!  Hope you all have a fabulous weekend as well. J

 

Touchy Subject?

I was reading today on my local FCC newsgroup. (that’s Families with Children from China for those of you outside the adoption community)   I don’t usually get all up in arms about stuff that people say on there (or any group), because, most of the time I think its just silly. MY FCC group really has never ever riled me up. We are pretty tame.  However this morning there was a post from our local Girl Scout council, wanting to reach out and embrace the girls in our Asian community to be part of Girl Scouts. I’m fine with that. In fact, I think it’s super. But what she wanted to do was start brand new Girl Scout troops that were comprised entirely of FCC girls.  In other words, every member of the troop would be a Chinese American girl, adopted from China.  It just rubs me the wrong way. I’m active in Girl Scouts, I am a co-leader of a Brownie troop. I would be APPALLED if someone suggested to me that we have a troop that was only Irish Americans. Or only white kids, or only kids with bi-racial parents. OR whatever. Isn’t that how racism starts, by separating people into groups?!?!  What it boils down to is this, would it REALLY help my child if all her girl scout friends were exactly like her?!? I have to say no. One of the major points of Girl Scouts is teaching girls and young women to come together and have fun regardless of who you are, what you look like, or where you’re from. I truly believe that you learn to be a better person by making friends with people you would ordinarily not have the chance to meet.  Do I want my child to be in Girl Scouts, absolutely (if she wants). But do I want her to be in a group of other girls exactly the same as her? I don’t know. I don’t think so.  Am I over-reacting here? I mean, I know already that Emily will have Chinese playmates. In my area, there are so many families that have adopted from China I don’t think that she would even be the only girl in her class at school. Not by a long shot. And there are plenty of opportunities for her here in this area to learn Mandarin or Chinese dance, or playgroups with other FCC members.  I just think Girl Scouts is pushing it.  Ugh. Should I be thinking about this, this early in the game? What do y’all think? Should I write back on the newsgroup and say what I’ve said here? Should I just let it go?