Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving. We went into the City, saw a little of the Thanksgiving Day Parade and then went to the premiere of this:

Afterwards we came home and ate stuffing with some turkey. Turkey takes a second fiddle around our house until today, when Matt makes his famous turkey curry buffet with the leftovers (yum!).

We went around the table and shared what we were thankful for--Chloe is thankful for Daddy and helping him clean the Po*rsche. Daddy & Mommy were both thankful for our family. We are hoping that on Monday we get to add another member to our family officially.

Chloe also received a knitted hat from Aunt Deanna in the mail. Thanks Aunt Deanna.

Happy Thanksgiving

One of Those Days

Tuesdays are long days. Chloe has enrichment in the morning, lunch and play, kindergarten and then twice a month she has her Daisy meeting. Tuesday was also the school bake sale. Matt volunteered to help the bake sale, which translated means I baked and worked his shift.

At 3:00, 500+ elementary kids bombarded the table looking for a sweet treat for $1. We were sold out after 30 minutes. Chloe missed the bake sale because she had a Daisy meeting. When I picked her up later that afternoon, she didn't want to tell me anything except to whine that she didn't get to buy a cupcake at the bake sale. She cried, whined and yelled in the car how it wasn't fair and it was the worst day of her life. (SERIOUSLY--and she's only 5)

Being the complete pushover I drove to main street and the upscale cupcake shop. I took Chloe inside and gave her $3 and told her to buy a cupcake. She picked out the tie-dyed cupcake with the peace sign on it. She was happy...for now.

Since we were in town I decided to take her a few doors down to the kids shoe store to look for navy dress shoes and to get some new winter boots. Yes, *U*G*G* boots. The shoes store had no navy dress shoes but they had a giant selection of "the boots". Chloe made her choice, she got sized and we made our purchase.

As we headed back to the car, I said, "What a nice ending to what you said was 'the worst day of your life'. You got a tie-dyed cupcake and some really nice *U*gg boots. What more could you want"!

"I want a backpack with a peace sign on it," Chloe responded.

AAAARRRGGGHHHHH! The drive home was spent talking about rhetorical questions and how smart little girls who just got an expensive cupcake and expensive boots wouldn't have answered one.

Cutest Tree Ever

M

Matt and I went to my Junior League fundraiser last night and bid and won the cutest Le*go tree. The tree was made by a League member and I think it is so creative.

Chloe saw it on Friday when she went with me to help set-up and she told us she wanted it for her room. She was surprised this morning to come downstairs and see it.

Dress Up

We went in to the City to Matt's work because he left his phone in his office. Chloe loves Daddy's office because she gets to wear the telephone headset and pretend she is making phone calls.

When we got home, Chloe played dress up with the Christmas chef outfit sent from BeBe.

Pilgrims & Native Americans

Chloe's Thanksgiving Feast was today at enrichment. Guess what she went as?

Put a Bow on It 'Cause

it is done. All my Christmas shopping is complete!!! I'm off to the post office to mail packages.

Daisy Induction

Taking the Daisy pledge before the start of the ceremony.

Wearing her new tunic after induction.

Chloe was inducted into the Daisy's yesterday and she received her much anticipated Daisy tunic. She has already earned a badge for going to the Ho-Down kickoff but it hasn't arrived yet (much to her dismay). Her troop meets every other Tuesday and they wear khaki pants and a white shirt. Chloe loves to wear this outfit as she is convinced it looks just like what Daddy wears to work.

Celebrate Adoption

On Friday, our local library had a celebrate adoption event. The librarian has an adoptive daughter from China and she started the program by talking about international adoption, the process and showed slides of her adoption trip to China. She then opened the mic to anyone who wanted to share their adoption story. Chloe went up and shared that she was adopted from China and has a little brother named Oliver coming from Ethiopia. She then signed off saying, "Later!". It was sweet and cute.

Other girls from her Chinese dance class were in attendance and they decided to do an impromptu fan dance for the audience. They are performing the fan dance in NYC in June. I hope the fans make it that long!

While the Cats Away...

the mice Christmas shop. Chloe and I completed the majority of our Christmas shopping today. It was a marathon. Whew! Glad that's out of the way!

Matt's in Virginia at a Por*sche club driving event at Virginia *International *Raceway. He sent us the above photo. He took the Navigator and towed his car behind for the 10 hour drive. He went with a friend so he had company. We hope he's having a good time!

November is Celebrate Adoption Month

We are in an article written for a local publication on adopting internationally. You can see the article here.

VOTE

It's election day, don't forget to vote. We have a hotly contested NJ Governor's race and I am so pleased that today the campaign ends and the 6-7 robo-calls I get a day will end! I'm off to go vote and then take Chloe to school. Chloe always comes with me to vote--I want to instill in her that it is our civic duty as citizens.

Dance Party

We installed a dimmer in the basement and that required a family dance party. This is a video of Chloe dancing to one of her favorite songs. The ending is the best.

Halloween Recap

Chloe in her Halloween costume. We HAD to get a new headress as the one feather that came with the costume was not good enough (according to Chloe).
This was Chloe's In the Spotlight week at school. She got to be the line leader all week. Her kindergarten teacher (and Chloe) is leading the class back inside after the Halloween parade. I was able to take photos here, after the parade.
Daddy and Chloe before trick or treating.

Halloween is over, only the candy remains. We raked leaves today after church and found candy and candy wrappers strewn in the yard. Since Halloween was on a Saturday we had a larger number of trick or treaters this year, even in the rain. We ventured a little beyond our usual trick or treating route this year and went to a few of Chloe's kindergarten classmates homes. When Chloe would ring the doorbell of each house the people would ask if she was Pocahontas to which Chloe would reply, "No, I'm just a Native American." The people would then say, "Oh, you're a pretty Indian." Chloe would then reiterate, "I'm not Indian, I'm a Native American!" Yes, those social studies teacher's kids can be a little pushy with the correct terminology.

On Friday at Chloe's elementary school the entire school had a Halloween Parade. The parade started at 1:45 p.m. and parents were lined 4 deep along the route. I waved and yelled for Chloe as she passed but being that I am a kindergarten parent and Chloe is our first in school, I didn't know about the elbowing to get your kids picture and missed out snapping one of her as she passed. I do have a good photo of the back of the lady's head who attempted to take me out to get her photo of her 2nd grader. I also think I have a bruised rib.

We got a real treat though yesterday--we received word that our adoption case will be going to court in Ethiopia on November 30. We will not be present at the court hearing but will be represented by our agency's attorney in Ethiopia. If we pass court, Oliver will officially be ours (by Ethiopian law). We will then travel to Ethiopia to pick up Oliver about 6 weeks later, where we will complete the U.S. portion of the international adoption. The court hearing is much earlier than we expected. We were thinking our case wouldn't be heard until mid-December so it was great news!!

Happy Halloween!!

It's Getting Closer to Halloween

Today was playgroup. The kids got in the spirit and dressed as mummy's. They were supposed to be carving pumpkins. The moms did some great pumpkin carving.

Hey, That's My Dog!!

Today during lunch, I let the dogs outside to do their business. It was raining. Rain isn't very popular among the canine crowd at our house. It wasn't raining hard but it took some coaxing to get Flash outside, but he went. I shut the back door, put lunch on the table and heard Lizzie "yep" at the back door to be let back in. Only a minute and a half had passed. I opened the back door and only saw Lizzie. I called for Flash, he didn't come. I walked into the back yard. No Flash. I turned back towards the door to see the side gate wide open. Panic struck. I yelled inside the house to Chloe that I had to go find Flash. I ran out through the open gate and there I saw a blue Ford SUV with a lady trying to stuff Flash in the back seat of her car. I ran to the car, told her it was my puppy and thanks for stopping him. She didn't let go of him but said, "I would have called when I got home." I told her thanks again and grabbed his collar and pulled him away and walked him back inside the house. I was so happy that he didn't go far and that she stopped him. But, then it struck me as odd---why was she trying to stuff my dog in the back seat of her SUV when she HAD to have seen him run from our yard? Literally, only a minute and a half had passed when I discovered the gate was open. She was also parked right in front of the open gate. Flash is microchiped and he also wears a colllar with a tag stating his name, address and phone number on it. She was on the street he lived on, in front of the house he lived at. I know it was raining and no one would enjoy trying to find a stray dog's house in the rain, but would you prefer it to shoving a unknown 55 lb. wet dog in your car, taking him home and then calling the owner? As I thought about it more, I became more freaked out. I think she was trying to steal my dog! I am just so happy that Lizzie alerted me and that I went outside when I did. Alls well that ends well and Flashy is safe inside with me. Of course, I am now a nervous wreck and have been waiting with the dogs in the middle of the yard when I let them out.

Chloe was happy to have him back too. So happy she decided to put on her stormtrooper outfit to protect Flash.

Can Anything Be Easy?

We're still buried under books and cans of paint here. With each simple project comes an unexpected snag. Nothing is simple, even when you think you are doing a simple project.

At the entrance to our back door is a wood floor. It's pre-finished wood and when we replaced our furnace some time back, the guys destroyed the floor. It can't be repaired. We are having to replace the floor. However, I couldn't find anyone to replace the floor because there are 3 wood stairs at the entrance that were also damaged and need to be repaired. I was told by flooring expert after flooring expert to find a stairmaster to replace the floor. Seriously? For 3 steps? Finding a stairmaster is no easy feat. The generally build stairs and work on new builds and renovations. And, by chance, I think I have found one, after nearly 2 years of searching. Could our wood floor finally get replaced this week? I hope so.

Down in the basement, the sleeper sofa was delivered today. Unfortunately, in order to get the sleeper sofa in the basement I had to know out the sheetrock surrounding one of the pillars. We can now add "sheetrock pillar" to the to-do list.

We have to wait to sheetrock until we sell the old sofa that still resides in the basement.

The new bookshelves are done and need to be painted. The footprint of the new bookshelves is different. You can see where the old bookshelves once were where the white rectangle is located on the right wall. It seemed simple enough, strip the old latex paint off and repaint. Not so easy. The wall is plaster and today I was advised to get a professional plasterer in to repair and repaint. Oh, and did I mention the wood floors around the new bookshelves have to be refinished?
And, we haven't even started on Oliver's room.

It's Chloe's "In the Spotlight" week at school. Each student in class is assigned a week, they get to make a poster telling all about them and during the week they get to pick special jobs and assignments. Chloe and I worked on her poster off and on for the past couple of weeks. I had her first tell me the story she wanted to share on her life and then we matched photos to the story she wanted to share.

Above is a photo of Chloe with her poster she took to school and shared. She's being silly in the photo wearing her fireman's hat and blowing her whistle.

Her poster and life story she shared go something like this:
Chloe was born in China and came to live with her Mom and Dad in Texas. She moved to New Jersey when she was 22 months old. Her favorite activities are camping with her family & 2 dogs, swimming and snow skiing. Chloe loves to travel. Her favorite vacation is a beach vacation. In Mexico she got to swim with dolphins! Her favorite place she has visited is Big Ben in London, England. Chloe has family all over and loves to visit them. Chloe's Daddy is from England and her Nana lives in England. Chloe's Grandad lives in Sweden. Chloe loves to visit her BeBe and PaPaw in Texas. Chloe's PaPaw has a farm and she gets to fish and ride on the tractor when she visits. Her PaPaw even got her baby chicks!

Halloween Party

Saturday was our Newcomer's Halloween Party. This is our 4th and final year in Newcomers and our last Halloween bash. Matt was sick with a cold and did not attend. Chloe got to wear her Native American Halloween outfit for the first time. It was rainy and humid on Saturday so it was the perfect day for an indoor family-friendly Halloween bash.

Chloe and I arrived early to help with the balloons and final decorations. You could tell that Chloe had done this before as she mingled with all her friends. I barely saw her at the party as she and her pals entertained themselves.

During the party, a friend introduced me to her neighbor who also moved from Dallas. Turns out I went to high school and church with her husband (it's a small world). Later that day, I went out to run an errand and began talking to the clerk who had grown up and moved from my hometown in Texas as well.