BRRRRRRRR!

It is going to get a whole lot colder 'round these parts! This weekend the temperature drops and Monday the high will be 7 degrees. Sounds like a good time to plan a trip! How about California? I am getting out of here next week! I just want to get there, no storms and such. Cannot wait.

Until then, I will veg it front of the space heater, not go to the gym and eat all night long. Winter is definately here now. I have begun to hibernate.

This one's for you goofball!

We have had a crazy year together. I have to say that my boy makes me proud and he knows what I am talking about. It is really wonderful to get to that place together where you know the other person is not going anywhere and you are just together. Happily together. Loving spending time together and looking forward to more days together as time passes.

As we sit side by side on this long journey to have a complete family, I would never want it to be with anyone else but my boog. We laugh a lot. We tease each other a lot. It's all good.

So here it is, feeling a little mushy tonight. Happy we are almost through this month. Closer to Lucy every day.

February here we come.

I saw the CUTEST little Chinese boy at Wegman's today. He must have been 18 months or so. He was walking with his head down looking at his feet the whole time. He walked right up to me and stopped. I said hi to him and he looked up at me with the sweetest face. I pictured Lucy walking around like that. I felt like a giant next to him. He was so petite and little. So cute!!!

We are starting to plan our trip a lil' bit. I want to enjoy Cali first then get down to the nitty gritty of the details for April.

I have included a picture of the area of Tropea, Italy. We plan on seeing this with our own eyes!!!!! It is about an hour drive from the families town. Someone at work reminded me that some Europeans sunbathe topless. I hope that the sun is so bright that we do not stumble upon that! eeks.

And....we're off!!!!

Well, we are finally taking peoples advice. Get a new focus. This waiting has been torture. I often dream about meeting Lucy so even if I convince myself during the day not to think about her, she is always in my dreams. The other night in my dream she had such a big smile when I looked at her and said "NI HAO!"

We have decided not to just act like our life has stopped since our LID. As hard as it is- we still have to keep going. So.... we have a lot going on. My mom and I are going to California in February for our annual girls weekend. Joining my lil' sister and Penny (6 mths old now!) in Napa. We have already discussed outlet shopping, maybe a visit to the coast and hopefully some blue skies!! It should be a nice getaway. :)

Then in April........ we are going to ITALY!!! We got amazing tickets prices and are going to stay with John's family. His dad is coming too, thankfully as our interpreter. They are from the region of Calabria. We are going for 13 days, so we also hope to visit several other parts of Italy once we are there. I am very nervous about the trip. This will be the first time I have traveled to a different country( besides Canada ). I guess it is a good thing we got our passports when we did! I am sure we will post more about our upcoming adventures as we know more details. Until then CIAO!!

ice storm

i wanted to post some pictures of what an ice storm in upstate ny looks like.. for those who live in habitually warmer climates... i.e. kevin & tonya, jitterbug.
it is beautiful to see, very cold, but amazing. if you click on the pictures, you can see how completely, perfectly covered everything is in a layer of ice. this is our bush in the front yard, and a tree nearby.

is that envelope... BROWN !?!

this day is getting better and better... but first, the best part - we got our brown envelope today !! for us adoptee's, its the notice from China that informs us where to go and what to fill out when we finalize lucy's adoption. it is just paperwork and forms, but it is the best looking dark manilla envelope i have ever seen.
we did not get a chance to get our mail till about 30 minutes ago, and we were not too anxious. saturday mail always consists of our local penny saver and a 'have you seen her...' flyer.
totally stoked. we had the best intentions of reading every page, but a quick rundown of the sheets enclosed gave us the boost we needed. not for nothing, but going thru this elephant pregnancy is tough. we are just about at 5 months since l.i.d., on tuesday, and we thought that we may not get this envelope, and that the bad luck would just compile till we got there. our friends the meltzers got their envelope right around their 5th month, so i kept that in the back of my mind. we spent a few hours last night together, and they were very encouraging.. to hang in there. thanks guys, we really needed that.
we spend some time and money at the outlets today.. blah blah.. we spent a couple of hours fawning over mccoy.... but this envelope is the highlight.
yeah for us!

she's addicted

i kinda knew it when mia came into the world. anticipation for and the realization of penny fed the fire, but now that mccoy is here, tonya is a full fledged baby addict. for her, its all about kissing the head. we went to mccoys house (yes, its his house now) tonight. walking in, she had the boy in tote. rocking, swinging, humming, patting, and of course, kissing. she spent a few minutes trying to convince me of the euphoric effect of kissing his little 4 day old head. yes, he is soft, but she is totally addicted. she tells me that the kids are calling her, and that they need to have their aunt tonya.
adding to this frenzy was a message from mia, an actual call from her niece - telling her to come over cause she misses her aunt, and she loves her aunt, and wants to play with her. tonya is in auntie heaven. as a bonus, tonya and her mom are heading out to cali to visit lil penny. oh yeah, and her sister. sorry jack, its all about the baby.
i am really not complaining. its actually quite endearing. lucy's feet will never hit the floor.

the real mccoy

it finally happened. after 2 weeks of overdue anticipation, our little nephew arrived this morning at 12:11 am. 8lb 1oz mccoy grayson cline. cute little guy. great color, quiet and wide eyed. seriously, he is always looking around. even i held him, and i usually have a 4 month waiting period before i hold. the whole floppy head thing.
not 1 hour into this world, and he was welcomed by 17 members of his new family around him. the nurses were laughing since we took up the entire waiting area, and once the birthing room door opened, we filled that room to the gills.
tonya and i were thinking how funny it is that there are about 100 total pictures of us as babies/kids... and this little guy already has a couple hundred pictures of taken of him before turning 24 hours old.

here are some of my pics of the day...

alright already!!

by demand, here is the hack job.

and here is my attempt at looking normal

Long Weekends go Fast!

We did a ton of stuff this weekend! Including: We are awaiting the arrival of our nephew "baby" cline. John's sister is being induced as we speak. Her due date was 12/21. We thought every day since was the "day" but nope, he is stubborn. I am annoyed that I have to work tomorrow, a new lady is starting and I am the trainer. I really hope to skip out early anyways, I will have to beg. I mean he will be here tomorrow and I really want to see him! I am sure I will cry. what else is new.

I was going to start reducing my caloric intake. Since I ate 3 "angie buns", 1.5 donuts, bacon, leftover chinese, lasagne, almonds, pretzels and juice today, I think I blew it. Oh well tomorrow is another day.,..and since I have breakfast planned (pancakes for me) with my boss and the new lady, tomorrow is out too.

OK well hope to have news about the new guy in town-he is bound to be a fatty! Until then, dreaming of Lucy! Good night.