Thursday, March 05, 2009

I have another photo to share from our Helen, GA Valentine's Day get-a-way. I love this pic!!

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Last month we met my (Julia's) father for a photo "contest". Something my sister and I used to do with him when we went on camping trips. I needed tips on how to work the fancy camera so we turned our outing into a game of who can take the better picture. Our subject- a rusted out Clipper. Here are some of the pictures I took from my camera.
The Clipper...


My winning photo:


A cool view:

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Adoption Update...

This morning Great Wall Beijing confirmed with the CCAA the cut off date for the last batch of referrals. The CCAA informed us that they have completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through March 6, 2006.

The cut off date issued by the CCAA is the date through which they were able to match referrals. For example, last month the CCAA’s cut off date was March 2, 2006, so all families with LID’s before and on March 2, 2006 were sent a referral. As for this month, the CCAA’s cut off date was March 6, 2006 so families with LID’s before and on March 6, 2006 were mailed their referral.

Reminder: Our LID is September 18, 2006

Sunday, March 01, 2009

SNOW in GA!

Yes, it is SNOWING in GA! We are enjoying the beautiful scenery! Watching the snowfall is very relaxing. Before our satellite TV went out, we heard the forecaster dude say the last time GA had such a large snow was the "Blizzard of '93". All native peaches know about the "Blizzard of '93"!! It was the last significant snow fall we had! The difference in '93 and today is the temperature~ the ground isn't going to be cold enough for any of this white beauty not to melt.


Walking the Chihuahua's in the snow required 3 matches each (have we shared our match trick with you?! It's disgusting, but it works! All dog owners need to know how to force your pet to do his/her business in a hurry or in inclement weather! HAHAH!). Aren't they cute huddled up together? They do NOT like the cold, wet ground. Here they are begging us to let them back inside...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Hello All!! Matt and I have been very busy this year...we apologize for not posting more to our blog! We hope 2009 has gotten off to a good start for you too!

Recently we went on a long weekend to Helen, GA. We celebrated Valentine's Day in "OUR" cabin- where we got engaged 11 years ago! Other than a few new pieces of furniture, not much has changed for our cabin. This year was very special because, like 11 years ago, there was a Friday the 13th the day before VDay. Matt actually proposed on Friday the 13th (the day before hearts day- he couldn't wait one more day)! Thus, we celebrate EVERY Friday 13th since.

My Father has been assisting me in re-learning my fancy Nikon film camera. Film sure takes a better pic but it takes a little more effort to get developed. I FINALLY got all my film pictures developed and put on CD's of our trip to share with everyone here on our blog! We hope you enjoy! :)

Matt, the Three Amigos, outside "OUR" cabin...



Nacho & Fat Momma (Sierra)...


Beautiful Penny...


And a few pictures along one of our walks around the compound...(here I'm playing with black and white film; or, I should say, I'm trying to use up the black and white film)



I love this picture...

more to share a little later, off to eat some grub...

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I came across this on someone else's blog and I HAD to share it with all of you!

You Might Be Adopting from China if...
...you know that I-600 & I-171 aren't highways.

...you've been expecting a baby for over 3 years.

...you understand that it's 2006 in some parts of the world.

...you've "paid for" 3 citizenships, but never brought anyone into the U.S.

...you know that waiting for China has nothing to do with Dillards or dishes.

...your homestudy is followed by a number (i.e. #3 or #4).

...you never know how many days next month will have.

...you know that babies come in batches.

...you've been fingerprinted four times, but never committed a crime.

...you automatically assume everyone who is expecting is having a girl.

...you own new clothing in 3 little sizes for all 4 seasons (because you don't know when or how big).

...you look twice when you see a lady bug.

...you're more interested in what will happen in March 2006 than in March 2009.

...you know people who understand when you talk about 2 day months & 5 day months.

...your due date hasn't changed by days, but by years.

...you know who the Rumor Queen is...AND...you don't know who she is.

...you know that forecast doesn't have anything to do with the weather.

...you've waited so long, they re-checked your fingerprints to see if they changed.

...trying to understand why they're printing you again, you study your own fingerprints and wonder if fingerprints grow wrinkles.

...when you speak of "that time of the month" you're talking about CCAA updates & referrals.

You might be adopting from China if you love someone you've never met with all your heart.

by: Margaret Leigh

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

This is a post from Matt. Just something to pass along to anyone who is interested---one of my goals for 2009 is that by the end of the year I want to test for my blue belt (second level) in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. To that end, I have set up a blog to chronicle my training, my aches and pains, ad my thoughts as I progress toward the goal. My training blog can be viewed here

Sunday, December 21, 2008


3 Doors Down...
Last night we went to the Three Doors Down / Switchfoot concert at the Gwinnett Arena! It was so much fun! Very loud and Great music. Also, there were two other openers- American Devils (a local Atlanta rock band) & American Bang. We were not familiar with either but enjoyed listening & watching the fun.
A few Switchfoot hits they sang: "I dare you to move", "Learning to Breathe", "Don't close your eyes" And, the headliner 3 Doors Down played these hits: "It's not my time", "Kryptonite", "Citizen Soldier" & "Loser" (just to name a few). Our ears were ringing at the end of the concert, they played pretty loud. We noticed the crowd was mixed with all age groups; there were a lot of families with young teenagers and a parent.
Through out the venue, the National Guard was out with photo opps. They gave us a card which we could use to redeem free photos online after the concert. I've never seen this before, a great promotional opp for the NG. Our friends Connie & Gerald were familiar with the photo deals from their nascar days. But, to us it was new and we enjoyed taking advantage of the pictures~ can't wait to scrapbook these pics!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Thanksgiving Day Marathon...
Yes, I realize I am behind on posting these pictures! But, I am so proud of Matt and I want to share his accomplishment with everyone. He trained very hard for 6+months and Thanksgiving day he succeeded in running 13.1 miles under 3 hours!

Waiting on his arrival to the finish line I managed to keep my camera focused to capture the moment he crossed! I had elbowed my way into the perfect position. Luckily I did not miss the moment- there were so many other runners I was afraid he would run right past me and I wouldn't get the picture.


For finishing the race everyone received a blue ribbon medal. Here Matt is catching his breath & proudly wearing his well deserved medal! The finish line was in front of Turner Field. And, this is also the location to the Atlanta "Hosea Feed the Hungry"... that line went around the entire stadium!


I was amused & amazed by all the runners...more than a few were running in pilgrim costumes, turkey costumes and the ARMY had representation with a bunch of men running in fatigues, carrying the American Flag. Shortly behind them crossed another group of men running in full uniform (backpacks, combat boots, etc.)! The crowd watching cheered them on with gusto!
Matt wore his "3M's" hat (the 3 Marvelous Miller Milers)- representing our family team (Matt, Ed & Julia). And, he is already planning on running again next Thanksgiving! Run Strong!

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Tortola

The #1 reason why I (Julia) wanted to take this particular cruise itenerary was because it included a port with a Dolphin Excursion. Needless to say, this was a very special day neither of us will forget. Our Dolphins name was Elektra (with a "K"). She is between the ages of 13-15. We were in a group of

Matt Dancing with Elektra. This movement for Elektra was not easy. As she stood up in the water she was ferociously peddling with her tail fins. She worked hard to stand up like this.


Julia Dancing with Elektra. Okay, this is a horrible picture of Julia, but a very honest moment captured by the photographer. While Elektra is working hard she is also slightly moving backwards and she was pulling me off the platform and out to sea (which scared me).


Julia getting a kiss...

Matt getting kissed...

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

St. Thomas "The Ultimate Island Tour" Excursion

The view from our boat...

This excursion took us to the very top of the island and everything in between. The views were beautiful and the shopping was fantastic! This pic is on "Mountain Top" where you can see most of the surrounding islands. While there we had our pic taken with the St. Thomas Donkey- He/she was decorated to the hilt and was quite cute!


And, the view with Megan's Bay (National Geographic top 10 beaches. Legend has it if you are married on the beach then your marriage will last the test of time. Also, the top of the beach sands is in the shape of a heart, unfortunately we were not able to get that angle but we did see the heart along the way...

The view of our boat (the one on the far right). Luckily there was only one other boat in port this day. Others before us have said St. Thomas can get VERY crowded when mulitple cruise lines are in port.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Our First stop was Samana. These cream dogs where all over town. There were a few other color dogs but mainly this dog seemed everywhere! Same color & about the same size.


For the most part, this is a typical home. Most doors where wide open & you could see straight through the house. Aside from kitchen tables, not much else appeared to be inside. The typical family in Samana are 18 children!! All, sleep & live in these homes.

To bring good luck to their home, locals decorate trees with egg shells.

During our "Safari Adventure" excursion, local children walked with us to a popular watering hole.


At the end of our unstable, rocky hike was a beautiful waterfall. One of the older children climbed the limbs of a nearby tree and jumped into the water! It was very scary to watch because the waterfall was not very big and the water certainly did not look deep enough to jump into. However, the guide assured us the depth the child was jumping into was over 8 feet deep & the children "do it all the time".

Saturday, November 22, 2008

We made it home safely! What a wonderful vacation we had on MS Norwegian Dawn! We are still in the process of unpacking and uploading pictures. I thought I would share two beautiful views we enjoyed on our plane ride home yesterday.

approximately 12:30 PM, Miami


approximately 2:00 PM, Atlanta, What a beautiful site she is!

I will attempt to upload a few more pics from our trip soon.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Just a quick post from Matt. For those of you who don't know, we are going to be on vacation but, as much as possible, will be continuing to post comments on our Twitter feed (see the right margin of this blog to follow us on Twitter).

Monday, November 10, 2008

Adoption Update...

"CCAA’s cutoff date for this month was February 17, 2006.
I wanted to explain the CCAA’s cut off date. The cut off date issued by the CCAA is the date through which they were able to match referrals. For example, last month the CCAA’s cut off date was February 15, 2006, so all families with LID’s before and on February 15, 2006 were sent a referral. As for this month, the CCAA’s cut off date was February 17, 2006 so families with LID’s before and on February 17, 2006 were mailed their referral."

Wow! Good news that they are moving forward. Bad news it took 1 month to refer 2 days of LID's. Slow, slower, slowest... this is getting painful!!

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Below are two videos of things we have been up to recently. The first video is Julia and Connie working on Connie's Halloween costume. The second is Julia's "pre-tea" tea party. We are still learning how to use the camcorder and the video editing software, so the videos WILL get better. Promise!





Tuesday, October 28, 2008

carving jack-o-lanterns

Matt and I had a good time last evening carving our pumpkins. We were behind the curve on the newest craze~ my Bestie, Connie,shared with us (2 yrs ago) about the pumpkin patterns. Now we are hooked and carving pumpkins is just a little more fun!

Here's our two jack-o-lanterns before night fall...


and, all lit up ~ VERY spooky!


Also, one of my fave things to do is roast the pumpkin seeds! Unfortunately I put a little too much salt on them but they are still tasty!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

BOO Y'all!



We enjoyed another Fall Festival this weekend~ Gold Rush in Dahlonega, GA! We have decided it is our fave of the fall festivals. The weather was perfect! And, the leaves are just starting to change.

Again, we managed to beat the crowds by getting there right when they opened. Gold Rush is the largest fall festival (that we know of) and it took us twice as long to make our way through all the vendors {as it did last weekend at The Apple Festival}.

This time we remembered to bring our tin cup to get $1 refills at the root beer stand. In this picture Matt proudly holds the cup toward the camera.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Adoption Update

"...This month, the CCAA completed the matching process for families with dossiers registered through February 15, 2006..."

Just wanted to share the above information. We appreciate every one's prayers for our patience! Looks like we will be lucky to have a completed adoption in 2010! We are certainly on the slow boat to China.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Fight Club

A few Friday's ago I stopped into watch Matt's Fight Club training. Luckily I brought my camera. I hope Matt won't mind me posting a few of my favorite pictures of the evening. And, I'm sure he will post more respectful ones once he notices this post! LOL

So, I walked into a balmy sweaty session. Once I figured out the settings on my camera I was armed and ready... hehehe, I can't help but giggle over the earnest expression on Matt's face here:


Here Matt has a good submission hold on his trainer...


Side control BAYBEE! Rock it MY Man! That's MY man on top in side control, uh-hmm!


Anyone think they can Hang? Anyone wanna rumble?! :)
I can't wait to make a scrapbook page LO, or two!

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Happy Fall Y'all!


Today Matt and I drove over to Elijay, GA for the Annual Fall Apple Festival. It was a beautiful day and as luck had it we managed to arrive before the main crowd! Did a little shopping...enjoyed a caramel apple& southern BBQ. On our way out of town we peaked in to one of the main Apple Orchids and purchased some apples. And, this evening we made an "Apple Walnut Carmel Bundt Cake" using the apples we picked up today! It oozed of fall Yumminess!

Matt posing for the camera...


One of the oddist sights was the camel ride, yes, camel ride! This was my first time seeing a real honest to goodnest camel!


Me, on our way out of the festival, headed back to our car...

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Hello! Matt was able to upload some recent scrapbooking (sbing) layouts (LO) from our summer vacation to NY... I thought I would share them with you :)

The Brooklyn Bridge... what a beautiful bridge!!


Page Six Headlines... we saved 2 copies of the NY post so we could scan the images for our sb


Have metro card, will travel...

Monday, September 22, 2008



Matt and I picked out Baby E's 2008 Christmas Ornament. We chose "Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who!" Matt's favorite children books were Dr. Seuss. 6 months ago Matt joined a Dr. Seuss Children's book club for Baby E and her/his book collection has grown quickly. Thus, the Dr. Seuss ornament was the perfect selection for Christmas 2008!

Thursday, September 04, 2008

This is Matt posting. I was roaming the web a bit while at work today and I ran across this website MagMyPic.com which will put the picture of your choice on a fake magazine cover. I had to do one of one of my favorite pictures of the kids...enjoy:

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

My Boyz...

What a sight to behold... how precious!

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Another addition to our Christmas Village

Michael's Arts and Crafts store had a 50% off coupon in Sunday's paper ... so, back to Michael's we went on Monday to pick up the center piece to our Christmas Village!! The people file in and out on a rotating platform much like one of those German Clocks. It is so cute! Also, you can hear singing and talking or turn of the sound and just watch the motion! So cute!!

Lemax Caddington Village: Guiding Light Church

"Parishioners file into church for holiday services.' The Guiding Light Church is a large, beautiful, animated piece. The animated parishioners file past the priest into the church. This is a great centerpiece for your Village. And it plays music. The Guiding Light Church, from the Caddington Village series, will look great in your Lemax Christmas village. This Lemax village building will also coordinate with other Christmas villages in the same scale, such as Department 56 and Carole Towne. Add this Lemax village collectible to your collection today!"

Monday, September 01, 2008

Baby's R US Shopping Adventure

Yesterday Matt and I organized the dresser in the nursery. It had become a dumping ground! Also, we unpacked various baby gifts. Sorting through all the items put us in baby mode~ we were both surprised how long it had been since we had purchased anything for the Baby E.

We have a new Baby's R Us store nearby and today we ventured inside. We wandered around and confused ourselves over all the baby paraphernalia. Our search first lead us over to the Pj's. But, not knowing the sex of the baby led us to not so cute unisex outfits. Ultimately we moved past clothes because we have no clue what size to buy- 9 months-12 months?! Our otherwise "fun" trip to Baby's R Us became full of dilemma's and not so much "FUN" after all. However, still determined to find something for Baby E we found ourselves in the toy isle. And, we both feel very confident in our purchases. It would be hard to go wrong with toys! We wanted small items we can bring to China with us & that won't take up too much space in our bags. Our choices: "Koala Baby" rattle monkey & "Baby Einstein" Photo book! Needless to say the photo book totally excites me because we can put family pictures inside for Baby E to get used to faces...and if she so desires she can also chew on the handle and pages. Totally cute!


Saturday, August 30, 2008

Chan’s Chinese Antiques Lighted Building
We can't believe that stores are already displaying Christmas decorations! We mocked at first then we started browsing the isles. And, look what we found:


Today At Michael's Craft store we found this cute addition to our Christmas Village. No, it's not a Dickinson piece, it is a Lemax but we couldn't resist!! Our collection of Lemax is fast overtaking Dickinson pieces! Also, somewhere out there is a similar Lemax of a Chinese Restaurant and now we are on the look out!! Collectibles are fun!

This last Christmas we were unable to find our Lemax Christmas Villagers. A few weekends ago we were cleaning out the basement and found their missing box!! We are both excited about creating our 2008 Christmas Village~ we will hold a reunion with our "old" villagers and our "new" foreigners! I wonder if they will all get along.