3 Month Anniversary!

Well, today is our 3 month anniversary for our LID! Hopefully this means that we are 1/4 of the way to getting that picture of our beautiful little Emma! Now, I am not counting on 12 months at this point but I sure am praying for it. I have to say the first 3 months haven't been too bad. We have been keeping so busy that the time is going by pretty quickly.

Speaking of referral, anyone with a LID of 6/16-6/28/05 got their referral this week. I had such a good time checking out all of the little China dolls and reading the blogs. I am a little behind on posting all this but for those of you who are not as familiar with the China adoption world 12 days worth of referrals is a good thing. We are just hoping that all of July will be sent out in July (that will help keep our referral at 12 months. I guess we will just have to wait until next month to find out.

Now, Lisa has been asking what I have been doing to lose my weight so here goes. I am not technically doing Weight Watchers but I am trying to use their point system to some degree. I don't follow it to a T but I am staying close to my 22 points a day. I am so suprised at how easy it is. I have had plenty to eat and feel very satisfied. My sister read that you should drink a glass of green tea every morning, so I am trying that too. Lastly I have been walking with Mike 4 days a week 1-2 miles each time. I guess it is a combination of all of this but like I said my motivation is The Great Wall and my precious Emma. I sure don't want her to have a "Big Momma"!

It's Wednesday!

Well it's happy Wednesday for me! It has been a really long 3 days. I worked 44 hours in 3 days. Tuesday was the longest since I went in at 5:40am and got off at 11:20pm. Way to many hours standing on your feet digging around in peoples belly's (sorry for the visual!) Oh well, my week is over and I can enjoy a few days off.

I know what you are thinking... It's Weigh In Wednesday (right!) Well, for this week I am excited to post, just don't expect this every week. I got up this morning, stripped down (can't have any extra weight) and stepped up on the scale. Survey says.... 4 lbs.! I couldn't believe it. I have now lost a total of 12 lbs. I still have a long way to go but Emma and The Great Wall sure are a good inspiration. I can't wait to see how everyone else is doing.

Well, it's late for tonight so you'll here more from me tomorrow!

Our Awesome Pal!

Jack says a big thank you to our wonderful secret pal!
When I got off work tonight and called home Mike said there was a package waiting. I couldn't wait to get home to open it and see what we got this month. Here is a picture of the box as we opened it up. Check out how cute the card is. It reminds me of the flowers in Emma's bedding!

Look at all of these wonderful gifts. Secret Pal you sure are spoiling all of the Kramer's! These are Emma's first summer toys! Look at how cute the Elmo sprinkler is (I wanted to get it out but I know I should keep it for Emma. We also got the cutest sand toys so I reminded Mike that we will have these to take on our first beach trip! I don't know if you can see the little ducks that squirt water (my favorite). I got some of the cutest summer time scrapbook stickers and Jack got a bag of goodies.
Check out Jack with his bag of bones. He was so excited to get one as you can see in the picture above. He has been sitting at the table all night waiting for me to give him another treat. Look at the cute tag with his name on it. Isn't he adorable!

Secret Pal, I just wanted to let you know how much we loved all of the gifts and can't wait to find out who you are so we can thank you in person. All of your notes and gifts have meant so much to us and we can't begin to thank you enough!

A little fun time

Thursday night we had a house full of kiddos and we really enjoyed every minute of it! Above is from left to right Gage, Stevie, and Hunter. Can't you see the love.

Charlee finds a little time to relax and make a call

Chase spends the morning helping the little ones with a little painting project. I think we have some future artists in the family!
Tommi, I promise I didn't feed him anything bad! A little candy never hurt anyone!

These were just a few of the shots I got of the kids this weekend. Thursday night we went to see Car's and out to dinner. I wish I would have gotten a shot of the dessert Gage and Charlee ate (absolutely sinful!!) Friday was such a beautiful day and we had a ball painting and had a little fun in the sun on the slip and slide.

Something to think about

Today was my Saturday to work at the hospital and of course it was a busy day. I had to big cases so I headed out the door at 5:15am this morning. Way to early if you ask me! Anyway the day was going really well when I had one of those moments I thought I should post here about. We had just finished up a surgery when I started hearing a baby cry. I stopped dead in my tracks and just listened. Now I know there are no babies in the OR so it was one of those moments when your heart just sank. Was this a sign? Was I just delirious from lack of sleep? Who knows, but I thought I should post about it here. You never know. I always sit and wonder if Emma is born yet or when will she be born. It is possible that she could have been born today. Once again, who knows but it sure gives me something to think about!

I haven't downloaded my pictures I took from Friday so I will post more about this tomorrow. Thursday night Mike and I keep the Griffin kiddo's since Tommi and Steve headed to beach for a 10 year anniversary weekend (by the way, Happy Anniversary!). We went out to eat and to see Car's. We had a wonderful time, even our little dazzlers joined us for the movie and then Charlee and Chase spent the night with us. Boy did we have a house full! We couldn't have enjoyed it more. I'll post some pictures tomorrow!

Check out my book buddy!

Yes, I joined another swap! I know, I know, but look at what I got! I was excited to join this group because it is a chance to meet some more new people and add to our book collection for Emma. Jan McMillin was my pal from this month and boy did she go overboard! Look at these wonderful books. I can't wait to get to read them all and one day share them with Emma. I know she will especially love the pig (how can you resist)! Thank you Jan for the wonderful books and for being so thoughtful. I love everything. Oh, by the way, yes this swap we actually find out the buddy!

A Special Card!

Sorry it took so long to post this but without the internet I had no way to thank our Feb. Secret Pal. Saturday when we got the mail there was the cutest card in the mail addressed to Daddy Kramer. I can't believe how incredibly sweet and thoughtful our Secret Pal is. Mike loved the card and it definitely made him excited thinking about next year. We just pray that our little China Doll will be home to celebrate the day! Thank you so much for the card. You sure do know how to make a new dad feel special!

I Broke My Promise!

Well, last week I promised I would update the site more frequently and here it is 10 days later and no post. Well this time I do have a good excuse! Friday evening someone cut a phone line to our neighborhood and we lost our service. We were without phone service until Sunday night and without internet service until Tuesday night. Believe me I was going through withdrawls. I couldn't wait to get home tonight to get an update on all my fellow bloggers and to check all those emails. I hope to get caught up ASAP as I hate to miss out on anything!

Sorry I've been MIA!

Sorry I have been Missing In Action for the last week! I have had a few problems with posting on both of my blogs so here I am trying it again! It has been a busy week and I didn't even get to post on Weigh In Wednesday. Needless to say it was probably a good thing since there wasn't much to report. My weight remained the same. I guess I can't complain too much. I could have gained. I guess I will just have to wait until Wednesday and hope I lost something (anything!) I had a really nice weekend. Friday I headed out to dinner with Amy and Holly and I even ate good and healthy! We did a little shopping and I bought 2 beautiful dresses for Emma. I will try to take a picture of them this week and post them. Then Saturday we headed out to Papa John's Stadium to watch Chase play in a 7 on 7 passing tournament. It makes me so ready for football season. Today we just got to spend the whole day at home relaxing. That sure doesn't happen enough! Now as I sit here I begin to dread the inevitable Monday morning (yuk!) Oh well, here goes my 3 days of glorious fun at the hospital.

I guess I should back up because I didn't tell you about Thursday. We went to dinner at Dynasty which is a Chinese buffet. Katrina, our family advocate at A Helping Hand invited the families from our area to dinner for a meet and greet. We had a really nice time and met some nice couples. There was one in the group with a March 7th LID, one was going to be DTC on Friday, another finishing their dossier, my friend Leslie who is finishing the paperchase and Tammy who just got back with McKenna in March (what a cutie!) I'll have to post about Tammy soon. It was so nice to finally meet some of the people who are right there with us.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I will post more soon to tell you more about our dinner and of course a post for Weigh In Wednesday!

Celebrating the Graduates!

Above is a picture of Mike with Courtney (on the left) and her friend Chelsea. They both also graduated this year from the 8th Grade. Courtney will be going on to Manual and Chelsea will be going to Butler. Congrats girls!


Yesterday we went to the Martin's for the big graduation party. It was a wonderful celebration! It is still hard to believe that my baby will be going to college in the fall. The picture above is of (from left to right) Jeff, Tony and of course Corbyn. Once again congrats Corbyn, welcome to the "Real World"!


Today we went to my cousin's baby shower. She is adopting a little girl from Oklahoma that is due in July. It sounds like the baby may be born this week so Theresa and Jim will be heading out to OK on Thursday. It gets even better, they were on a list here in KY too and got a call about a month ago that they were chosen by a birth mother and she is having a little boy also due in July. So come this time next month they should be parents for a little girl and a little boy. Please keep them in your prayers that all goes smooth .

Tomorrow it is back to the real world for me as I have to go back to work. I didn't sleep late while I was off but I did sleep in past 5am, so hopefully I can pry myself out of bed tomorrow. I will be looking forward to Happy Wednesday!

A Chinese Princess Moment (or TWO!!)

This afternoon I went out to lunch with 3 of my very good friends all of whom I graduated from high school with. We had a great time and I even ate a healthy lunch (I am definately gaining will power). After lunch we did a little shopping and then I headed to get my hair cut. This is where I get to my Chinese Princess Moment! I walked in and while waiting for Karen I saw out of the corner of my eye the cutest little Chinese princess waiting to get her hair cut, oh wait, there were TWO!! The younger of the two kept smiling and waiving at me and my heart just sunk! I could picture my little Emma climbing up in the chair for Karen to cut her hair and it just made me so excited. Of course I notice each and every China Doll that graces my presence and like today all I could do was just sit, watch and dream. I only wish I had my camera with me to take a picture of the girls. I know all of you would have loved them too!

Tomorrow we are headed to the Martin's for Corbyn's graduation party so I am sure once again this proud aunt will have pictures to post. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!