Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

HOPE EVERYONE HAS FUN

TRICK OR TREATING!

Big News!!

While packing up Mike's parents on Saturday his Mom ran across an umbrella stroller in the garage. Lisa thought she should throw it away as she thought we wouldn't want Emma riding in it. To our surprise she said, "well, maybe she isn't the only one that needs one". With that all eyes went straight to Shelley. You got it, I'm going to be an aunt again! This will be #11! Hey, there is that #11 again! Now Emma will have a playmate cousin her age (and a bunch of older cousins to spoil her!). Anyway, congrats to Mike and Shelley, the parents to be!!

Why haven't I blogged?

Sorry no posts lately but life has been moving way to fast (oh, isn't that what I was wanting these days?). I actually had a few days off from work last week but I did help out a few days at my parents office. I did manage to get away one day and visit Corbyn down at WKU. Mike and I did start painting the living room. I will have to take a picture of the finished process. We still have to finish the trim. I like the color (cocoa butter), a fancy name for yellow if you ask me. We have also been in the process of helping Mike's parents move. They have to be out of their house this week so there was lots to do. You sure do accumulate a lot of things in 35 years! Of course there were 2 nights of football this week. I can't believe the season is almost over. This Friday is the first round of the playoffs. They are playing Bardstown Bethlehem and this team beat them in the regular season. Hope they come out to play.

It's only been 7??

Yes, today is our 7 month LID anniversary. If you see above the number seven it says restless, that would be me! I know we still have a long wait ahead of us and at this point SEVEN just doesn't seem to be far enough. I guess right now we are all just on pins and needles waiting to hear the news on the latest referrals. We were all hoping they would come last week but it looks like they may be Halloween referrals. The big mystery is just how far did they get. I guess I will be checking in with Rumor Queen for all the latest rumors and gossip. On a good note it does make us SEVEN months closer to Emma!

Where have I been???

Where have I been?? Everywhere but here.

Where do I blog?

Melissa made a challange to show where you blog. This is a picture of me on the couch (notice my leg, I'm still in my scrubs). This is in my family room in front of the TV. Hey, I have to kill 2 birds with one stone. Of course Jack is sitting below me wondering why I would rather look at this stupid screen then play ball. Up on the screen is my Baby Jellybeans site.
This is the other place I go to blog. This is a picture of our office. You can see all the cludder on the desk, boy do I need to clean. The mouse pad is a Cleveland Browns pad (Mike's fav. team even though they aren't any good). On this computer you can see I was checking in on Lisa
to see her latest post.

We got more babies

We got a little sugar, spice, and pumpkin! I'll have to take some new pictures because these came out a little dark. A few weeks ago a stray cat had babies under our deck and now we have inheritied 3 little ones. They are so cute and playful. I feel like we are starting to have a farm here. We have our deers, turkeys, ducks and now our kittens and lets not forget my Jack and Kozmo.

AHH Book Buddy

Of course I joined another swap, just don't tell Mike! This swap is a book swap that was started by my March/April A Helping Hand group. For September my book pal was Nancy and boy did she send me the sweetest book and snuggly bunny for Emma. I have looked at this book many times at the book store but hadn't bought it yet. I am so excited that Emma now has it to add to her book collection. As for the bunny, it is already waiting for Emma in her crib. I thought it might be the only safe place where Jack wouldn't find it! Thank you so much Nancy for the wonderful gift. We love it and can't wait to share it with Emma. We will be able to read her this at bedtime while she snuggles with her bunny and I can steal those kisses while we count them!!

Way to go Dazzlers!

Of course, here I am bragging again! The pictures above are of our niece Charlee-Lyn at Jamfest. They won their division and came in 2nd overall out of over 70 teams, beating out many of the high school teams. Way to go Dazzlers! Charlee, I am so proud of you. Way to go in school and with the dance team. Tonight we are off to Highland Hills to watch her dance and we even get an added bonus because Stevie will get to cheer at the game also. I will try to remember to take pictures!

Happy Bithday Wishes!

Happy 1st Birthday Wishes!

The top 2 pictures are the twins Cohen and Griffin

and the bottom picture is Delaney.

A New Start

Tomorrow Mike starts a new chapter in his life. He is starting a new job at Invesco. The picture above is of a cookie bouquet that they sent Mike welcoming him to their team. I thought that was really sweet of them. Mike has been working for my parents business for the last six years and is sad to say goodbye. He has loved his job but is excited about the opportunity that awaits him. I just wanted to wish him good luck! I love you!

A special gift for Emma

Yesteday when I got the mail I was shocked to see a envelope from Amber. Amber is our home study advocate. She did our home study when we went to Ukraine and we were lucky enough to get to have her again when we decided to go to China. I have to say I was thinking that there must me some paperwork we needed to update. I was so excited when I opened the envelope and saw the precious bib pictured above. She had gotten this bib for her Emma and she never got to use it but thought that our Emma should have it. I can't believe how thoughtful she is. A few months ago she had sent me the cutest card and material for Emma's quilt. Thank you so much Amber for being so good to us. I can't wait until we have our Emma here and we can bring her to visit. We love the bib and can't wait to have Emma use it.

Another milestone

SIX, 6, HALF A YEAR !!!

Well, today is our six month LID Anniversary. I'm not sure if we should be excited or depressed. When we started the process to get Emma the wait was SIX months. That means this would have been our month to get our picture of our little princess. At this point six doesn't even mean the half way point. Now don't get me wrong, I am thrilled that we are six months closer to Emma just bummed about the slow down. This made me think that we "should" have around 8 months left. If that is right, Emma may have already been born. The referrals have been ranging from 6-17 months old. I just wonder if Emma is already here and waiting for us.

Reading to Emma!

Okay, I tried to post the pictures twice and both times they came out scrambled. Once again I am showing how little I know about how to use this blog. Sorry! Regardless all 3 pictures showed up they just don't have the same affect that it should have. If you look at picture #2 you can see how cute the books came all wrapped up, picture #3 is a closer look at the cute wrapping job and card and picture #1 is the 3 cute books we (well, Emma) got. All 3 of the books are so cute. I have always loved the Rainbow Fish and this little book is a counting book. Good Night Moon is one of my favorites and can you believe I didn't have it, and the Busy Bee book is so cute. I have always loved books and can't wait to read these to Emma. These wonderful gifts came from our wonderful March secret pal. Thank you so much MSP, I love everything. Your thoughtfulness is so wonderful and you are always spoiling us rotten. You sure know how to perk up the Kramer's. I am looking so forward to finding out who you are! Don't you at least want to give me a hint!!!

Who would you pick?

Who would you chose? Shepherd or Finn?

Let me know!

What's today?

All of my days are starting to run together. Is everyone as exhausted as I am? I know I keep telling you how hectic and busy things are, well no change this week. My docs are operating like crazy and it seems like each case is more stressful than the last one. It just seems that I am seeing such horrible cancers lately. That word is starting to bother me more and more. I guess the older you get the more it hits home just how horrible it can be. Oh, sorry about the depressing start, lets move on.
Yesterday was my weigh in and I was so tired that I completely forgot. I did weigh in today and it was a dead even. I'm okay with that. I am just trying not to go in the wrong direction. I guess I really need to stay away from Starbucks. That sucks since it is starting to get cold out.
Tomorrow is back to the ballfield. I sure hope the boys come out ready to play. They have had a couple of tough weeks. I guess we shall see. Well, gotta go, it's McDreamy time!

A little ray of sunshine!

Could be better, could be worse! The CCAA has sent out referral up to Aug. 9th. I was hoping for the 15th but then again it could have been July 28th. This still means I have a very long time to wait but my time will come. I just want to send a congrats out to all of those lucky families that are getting their referrals this week!

Be back soon!

Watching the Housewives; be back soon!

Check him out!

McDreamy's Back!

Just thought you might want to look at something cute!

Look what Emma got!

Our Feb secret pal strikes again and Emma got some wonderful gifts. Check out how cute this outfit is. I love the blue and it couldn't be any softer. I can't wait to see our little Emma all decked out in this outfit.

Isn't this book the cutest. I love the little story (of course I've already read it, twice!) and it is so cute how it lights up. I can't wait to read this to Emma. I am sure we will be reading this one in the dark. Thanks to my wonderful pal for all the goodies she has spoiled Emma, and us, with. I can't wait to know who you are!

A minute too late!

Thursday night I sat down and tried to post an update to my page. It took me awhile to get it all typed up and then at 7:01pm I tried to post it to blogger but guess what? At 7:00pm blogger went down for maintence. Can you believe it, one minute too late and I lost the whole post. The site was down for an hour and I never got back on the computer to do it again. Now it was my fault that I didn't pay attention that the site was going down but I was still mad and now I forgot what I wanted to tell you!
Work was typical this week. Busy as always but very fustrating. We have had a lot of problems with some staff lately and have lost some employees. Since we were short handed one of the managers decided that they would just draw out a name for someone to work Saturday. Needless to say my name came out. Now the part that got me mad was that I have been at my job for almost 10 years and this has never been done. The worst part was that she decided to just post a memo and not tell me about it. I couldn't believe that they didn't even have the courtesy to talk to me about it. I did end up and work Saturday but I had a long talk with our director about the situation. I can promise you that it won't happen again! Enough said!
Back to Monday! Chase had a JV game and I managed to make it there for the 2nd half. Even though they lost Chase had a great game and scored 2 TD's! Way to go Chaseman!!! Nothing exciting to report for Tuesday except that Dr S. wore me out. What a busy day. Weigh in Wednesday was good. I am happy to report a whole pound fell off! Not sure how but I sure am glad to say I am now down 18.5lbs! Friday was another busy day followed by Friday night football, well at least a little football. The game was called with 20 seconds to go in the first half due to the huge rain storm. Holy Cross was up 13-12. Today it was back to work. At least the weather was horrible and I wasn't missing anything. I only had to work 6:30-2:30 so it felt like a very short day. Mike and I did manage to go into E-town for dinner. That's about it! Not much else to report, sorry!

Just can't get enough

Just had to show a close up of Emma's first personalized item. I just love it! (Sure hope we don't decide to change the name, just kidding!)

Something for Emma

I was so excited when this package came last week. I had found these while surfing the web and couldn't pass them up. When I saw it I was so excited to get something with Emma's name on it. The bib says Eat like a lady and the blanket says burp like a lady. I just loved them. I had to wait until today to show everyone as I sent a set to Lisa. She loves the ladybugs as much as I do. She got hers in the mail today so I thought I could show them off now. I thought that it could be a ladybug sighting as I hear there is a chance we might hear of referrals coming out the end of the week. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Happy Birthday and Wednesday!

First I wanted to say a special Happy Birthday to my brother-in-law Glenn. I sure hope you had a wonderful day! Another Birthday wish to my good friend Terri. She had a BIG birthday yesterday.

I also just wanted to give my Wednesday update. I just cut straight to the chase! I am down another .5 lb. This brings the total to 17.5lbs. I'm still happy with my progress but still have a ways to go.

My Other Baby!

The other day I posted pictures of Jack and I felt horrible to leave out poor Kozmo, my first born. Mike found Kozmo in the bushes at my parents house a month after we got married, 9 years ago. He was so little and scared. Of course we had to keep him. Seinfeld has aways been one of our favorite shows so how could we name him anything else but Kozmo Kramer. We found out that he had leukemia when we took him to get fixed. The Vet wanted to make sure we wanted to keep him. How could we not? He's our baby and we love him. Nine years later he is still going strong. Sure he has used up a few of his nine lives but hopefully he will be around for a long time.

Another piece to the puzzle

Everyone has been asking me about Emma's room so now that we have her bed I wanted to post a picture of the bedding. Mike and I picked this out months ago. As soon as we saw it we fell in love with it. We still have a lot to do to the room but it's a start.
Here is a close up of the bedding. It is the Emily collection from Pottery Barn Kids. I just love the soft colors. As I get more of the nursery done I will post more pictures.

My Big Baby!

I was watching my baby eat his treat tonight and had to take some new pictures of him. Jack is such a sweet and loving baby! It wasn't always that way. I remember when he was a pup and boy was he a holy terror. He ate everything (couch, tables, vacuum cords, computer cords, carpet) Should I go on.... Boy how he has grown. This leads me to ...

I just started reading Marley and Me. So far it is so good. I can't review it for you yet but I sure can't wait to sit down and really get reading. Stay tuned for a review. I have been missing not reading so I decided to take a little time to just sit back, put my feet up and read.

Just one more shot of my baby. I know, he's a little plump! He tends to eat way too many of these BIG treats. Oh well, he's my Jack and I love him!

Time for more football!

Today was Gage's first ever flag football game and boy did he have a cheering section! We all headed over to Highland Hills to watch our #28 Bengal. The above picture is of the Griffin clan. For those of you not familiar with my family this is my sister Tommi, her husband (and Asst. coach) Steve, Gage (in the middle), Stevie and our little monster Hunter in the front covering his eyes!
Here is a picture of Gage #28 running hard to make a play, just like the pros!
Check out Gage here ready for action!

Way to go Gage! You did an awesome job today. We can't wait to come watch again.

A quick look!

Here is a picture of Emma's bed. Mike worked on getting it together last night and did a good job. We got the matress today from Mike's Mom and Dad so when I get the bedding on I'll take another picture. I can't wait for the room to start taking shape!


Here is the Berkley dresser I got at Pottery Barn Kids. It was a floor model so I got an awesome deal on it. I also got a little table but I forgot to take a picture of it, maybe later! I do have to say that I filled the top drawer with hair bows. I know, I know I have a shopping problem!

A project for Mike!

We were working on putting together Emma's bed last night so I took a few pictures in her room. I'll share the bed pictures later but I got a bigger kick out of her closet. When Mike opened it he decided he had a new project in store for him. Emma needs a clothes organizer! Today we will be heading out to Home Depot to get some ideas of how to fix the problem. I think the real problem is me! I can't resist a good deal and everything I have bought has been on clearance (you just have to buy it!) Now I do have to say that there are some gifts in here so I didn't buy everything. I guess I will send out a challange to all you girls to post a picture of your little ones closet since I know I'm not the only one with a shopping problem!

Chicago Anyone?!

Here is my favorite shot of our weekend. Of course you won't see a picture of me in my bathing suit!! This was taken at a beach that sits right on Lake Michigan. The water was so beautiful and the temp. was awesome.
This was Mike the afternoon we spent at the lake. I always think it is so cool how you can be right down on the lake and have the "Big City" right behind you. For those not familiar with Chicago, the building in the middle with the big antenna's is the Hancock Building. The view is beautiful from up there.

I love this shot as it reminds me of one of my all time favorite movies. Anyone know?!! You got it, My Best Friends Wedding. It is a picture of the architectural tour boat going down the Chicago river. For anyone familiar with the movie this is the scene where they are having there heart to heart. I would recommend everyone to take this tour. Really cool!
Mike made me put a picture of me on here so I picked one that wasn't a close-up! You know me, I hate having my picture taken.
Okay Larry, don't get jealous! This was Saturday afternoon at the Cub's game. We had a great time and even saw Bonds hit one out (sorry Cubs fans, but know that the fan that caught the ball threw it back)

The weekend started early Friday morning when we flew out at 6:30am. Since we are an hour ahead we got Chicago the same time. We have gotten more with the city so we took the Orange line to the Palmer House and got checked in. We then headed down to the financial district. It wouldn't be a trip to Chicago if Mike didn't get his stock market fix. We did manage to take a break and eat breakfast at Qdoba, where else?! You thought they only served lunch and dinner. Well, you haven't tried their breakfast burrito, it's awesome. We had to walk off all of those calories so we headed down to the Magnigant Mile to do some shopping. I was in my seventh heaven! We spent all day going in and out of the shops and even managed to buy a few things. Since it was our first night we had to get our pizza fix. Just as good as I remembered it to be. Saturday we were up and at it early again. I decided on a light breakfast at the Corner Bakery and just ate oatmeal. We did manage to eat by the chunky little guy in the Capital One commercials. My luck, I see a celeb and it's the Capital One guy! I guess I need to head to Cal to see the hotties. We decided to catch a Cubs game and went out to Wrigley to get some tickets. We were able to get some cheap tickets since they aren't very good this year but all in all the game was fun and we saw Bonds hit a homer. Sat. evening we went for our celebration dinner at the Webber Grill and had a wonderful steak. We were celebrating our anniversary, my birthday and our 5 month LID! Once again we were stuffed and went out walking. I wish I had taken a pedometer to track how far we went. The Jazz Festival was going on so we went down to the park and listened to the tunes, checked out the art and made a wish at the Buckingham fountain. Moving on to Sunday. Breakfast at Panera Bread, a bagel and cream cheese and then on to Starbucks, lots more walking and shopping. I did manage to buy Emma a few summer outfits. Mike said she already needs more closet space. We had an early dinner at the Redfish, a cajun resturant. We both had the gumbo and jambalya. UK and UL were playing on ESPN so off to the ESPN Zone to watch the game (if you can call it that!) One of these days we'll get a good coach. I just hope it is sooner than later. I did forget to talk about the popcorn! We packed a whole duffle bag to bring back! Monday morning was back to reality as we flew back home. Well, did I give you enough of the details (you asked for it!)

It was back to work on Tuesday and Wednesday and needless to say I was nervous about Weigh In Wednesday after all the food we ate. I do have some good news. No gain (no loss either) but the good news is I was even for the week!!

So, what was everyone else doing while I was gone?!! Oh, one more thing! The mighty Cougars won again! Way to go Chase, sorry we missed the game but we will be there to see you on Friday night. Holy Cross beat DeSales (I think the score was 34-13!!

Safe and Sound!

We are home safe and sound. We had a wonderful time in Chicago and I can't wait to fill you in on the trip but I am too exhausted to do it now. I will update you in the next day or two. Hope everyone has a great short week.

I'll be back soon!

We're in Chicago, be back soon!

Another baby step!

Yeah, I am so glad that my work week is over. I now have a wonderful weekend of fun ahead of me. Friday we are heading to Chicago and I can't wait. Mike and I love our weekend trips and Chicago has become a special place for us. Stay tuned in to hear about our little get-a-way!

It's WIW (weigh in Wednesday) and I made it another baby step. I lost another .5 lb. This brings my total to 17 lbs. I just hope that I can behave in Chicago and not gain too much. Next Wednesday you better close your eyes, it won't be pretty.

Well, I'm beat, so I'm outta here!

Alright, I'm Back!!

I know I keep saying I am going to update you on what's going on in my life but some how the time keeps flying by and here I am with no post. I did post about my week on my Babyjellybeans site so I won't go into to much details. All I can say is that if I can just stay this busy for about the next year maybe I won't have to much time to stress over the wait. The picture above is my gift from my special March secret pal. Check out how cute the card is. I love how everything is personalized. It helps make Emma seem real. I love the little horse. I think Emma will have so much fun playing with it (if she can keep it away from Jack)! Thank you so much March S.P., I love the gifts you send. It sure makes us smile and helps ease the weight.
This is going to be another busy week. I am just so glad that tomorrow is Wednesday and my work week is almost over. Hopefully tomorrow goes as fast as the last 2 days. Once again work has been so busy. I did manage to get out of work a few minutes early Monday night to go watch Chase play football. They had a big game against DeSales and won 13-12. The best part was that Chase caught the winning touchdown pass with 1 minute to go. Way to go Chase! We are so proud of you.
This weekend we are off to Chicago. We are heading up there to celebrate our anniversary, my birthday, and yes another month since our LID! Today marks our FIVE month anniversay of our LID. I can't wait to get away!
Back to our FIVE month LID Anniversary. When we first started the adoption process, the wait was running 6 months. It is so sad to think that next month we would be getting our picture of Emma. Of course, you know our luck. Things slowed down to 12 months and now who knows. It is sad to even think about it. I just hope that the wait doesn't go much longer.
I guess that's all for tonight but tomorrow is Weight In day so I'll post then. If you want to know more about my week just go to by Babyjellybeans site. More tomorrow.

I'm still here!

For those who check in on me, I'm still here, just extremely busy. I promise to post soon about my week and my secret pal gift. I have only been home to sleep this week so I have missed my computer. We are heading to the Rascal Flatts concert and I will talk to you soon!

Short note, more later...

Sorry I didn't post on Wednesday but this has been a hectic week. I will try to get a post on tonight. I did just want to mention that I was down .5lb yesterday, total of 16.5 lbs. Slow and steady wins the race (I hope!) I also got 2 packages in the mail last night so I will tell you about them tonight also. Hope everyone is having a good day. Back to work and then to the ball field. Later!