Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween to all !!!!
Hope all have had a fun Halloween--It's one of my favorite holidays. As my brother calls me, I'm a "witch baby" (due to my arrival being so close to Halloween, of course!) I look forward to trick or treating with our little one next year, if all goes as predicted. :) We've been saying that a lot these days--next year at this time our little Buttercup will be with us to so-and-so.....That's a nice thought.

Speaking of my brother....turns out I am going to be an aunt again!!!!! Yay! My SIL is due in early April. They waited a while to tell everyone--they are halfway there now! She had a very difficult pregnancy with my niece, so we are hoping this one goes without complications. So far, so good. They haven't decided whether they will find out the gender of the baby beforehand this time. I am a big fan of knowing. There are too many unknowns as it is......If you are one that prays, please keep them in your prayers for a safe delivery for my new little niece or nephew!

Surprise, Surprise!! It's my Birthday!

Well, I just had to share that my wonderful husband planned and threw me a surprise birthday party Saturday night. It was held at my mom's house, and I was drawn there under the guise that we were going out to dinner with our parents to an Italian restaurant to celebrate my birthday with them. When we got there the house was filled with my close friends and family with lots of food and balloons........and a big cake with a huge, black 4-0 on it, thanks to my mother-in-law. Yes, this is a big one. Today is my actual birthday. Happy Birthday to me! 40 definitely isn't as old as I once thought it was, that's for sure! :) It was a great party and I was so touched that everybody came and helped me celebrate. It was nice to share with everyone that we are finally officially on the waiting list after having no news for over 3 months waiting on the 171H. My best friend since elementary school made a DVD of my life in pictures and video with music from "the day". We had a lot of laughs watching that one. Who wore a blue and white vertical striped jumpsuit (not pinstripes, mind you--WIDE stripes!) to school? Evidently ME!! Wow, my fashion sense was a lot more cutting edge in the 80s!! I got 5 differnt bottles of wine as gifts--do you think that is sending a message? Ha,ha! I will enjoy them all! My hubby is indeed a sweetie and I love him to death for going to all that trouble to make a birthday I have been dreading special! He said it was stressful and weird keeping it all from me for so long. When I thought he was out shopping Saturday, he was at my mom's slicing pork loin and icing down beer and wine. Tonight we celebrate with dinner, just the two of us. Can't get too wild on a Monday night! I will try to post a pic or two when I get some back from my mom........Happy Halloween Eve Everyone!

We've Made the List...

I talked to our agency today and they verified that we are officially on the list. Nice! We debut at the lovely #19. They say it should be around 7 months until we should see a referral..... I'm hoping for sooner. I'm ready to see that little Buttercup face! We were able to celebrate with a yummy dinner tonight with our cousins. Ahhhhhhhh! :)

THE Form is Here!!!!

I have been the worst blogger lately, I know, I know. I have the best of intentions and I will try to do better. I have been a really good blog reader, but not so great a blog writer. BUT......WE HAVE THE FORM!!

The envelope we have been waiting the last 98 days for finally arrived yesterday!!! It is the I171H--the first required document for all International Adoptions--you can't go forward until you get this little unceremonious little piece of paper............And we finally have it. So you know what that means? Yep, we can get on the waiting list at our agency. We have just been hanging around in limbo worrying about when this thing would be in the mailbox. I had an idea it would be soon since a couple of my fellow NC adopters (who are also adopting baby girls from Vietnam), Emily and Kristen got theirs recently and they were a bit ahead of us in our log-in date. I have been sneaking out of the office in the late afternoons to go check my mailbox...... ha, the neighbors are probably wondering why I've been driving into the driveway, checking the box and then leaving again without going inside. Good thing I work very close to home! Unfortunately, the mailperson has decided to start delivering our mail at the last possible route of the day so all I ever saw was an empty box. I was really getting bummed! Now I can relax. (yea, right!)
Yay us!! Woohoo! I have faxed a copy to our agency, but since it was after hours and no one was there, I haven't talked to them yet to make sure they got it and to see where we are on the list.
I'll keep you posted........... :)

Fun with the Girls

Happy October!! (October just happens to be my birth month, so I have always been a big fan.)

I got together with some college friends this past weekend for some long-needed girl time with a few of my old college buddies. We met at one of my friends' house near our college town (who's husband was out of town golfing and daughter was spending the night at a friend's--woohoo! Partay! Ha!) and pretty much just had a grown-up version of a slumber party! :) We had some catch up time with some margaritas and then went to visit our college campus to see how much it has changed lately (A LOT! Our dorm is now coed..... even within the floors! Boy, that would have made dorm life quite different back then! It was Homecoming weekend, but we missed most of the festivities....) We also checked out the bricks in the Graduate Walk that one of the friends had done as a surprise gift for us a while back, so our names are emblazoned for posterity (or at least for a good while!) in a brick on a walkway thru one of the treelined park areas. It's nice to know we have left our mark, so to speak!
We then had a nice dinner and went out for a couple of drinks at the newly gentrified and trendy downtown area of our college town. Then we went back to the house to have some big laughs over a scrapbook that one of my friends made of all the goofy-stuff and memories from our years at school. It was fun to see them all at the same time again. We used to see each other at everyone's showers and weddings, but now we are all married (some of us twice!) and they all have children except me (they can't wait for me to join the club!), so it is hard for us all to get together often and it usually has to be a planned event. Of course there was all kinds of big talk about having a wild time, but it ended up being pretty tame-ha,ha. Looks like we are all talk and not as young as we used to be! We did stay up way into the wee morning hours, but for once we were all pretty sober at the end of the night! I hadn't seen one of my friends since a baby shower about a year and a half ago........We mostly all live in different towns, as is usually the case with friends you meet in college, I guess. We got up and made a big breakfast, drank coffee and chatted until we had to make a hasty departure to pick up kids, get to a grandmother's 80th b'day party, relieve babysitting dad's and the like....back to our committments of daily life.

Do you have that friend who is really good at keeping up with everybody and basically does all the work? Yea, that's not me....... It is my friend, Cindi, and I realize I do rely heavily on her to keep me in the loop. I do love my friends and have a great time when we get together, but it seems I suck at regular corespondence. Luckily, Cindi and I live in the same city and we have been friends since grammar school, so I believe she has accepted the burden--hee, hee. It's definitely in her nature and she couldn't help it even if she tried--she lives for keeping up with almost everybody she has ever known. It's really amazing, actually.

Overall, it was a fun time.......even though it reminded us a little that we aren't those crazy college girls anymore.........a sobering thought to this much-too-soon-to-be-turning-the-Big-4-0 at the end of this very month. Yikes. I'm much too young to be this damn old! :)
P.S. That's me on the far right
G'night!