Weekend Pics

Getting ready to watch our movie for the night.

My friend Jolene makes these awesome hairclips.
She gave this to me, & Erin decided that she had to have it.
It only took 4 years to get her to wear a clip in her hair.
Thanks Jolene!


Day 2 wearing a hair clip.
Will wonders never cease!?

Love Without Boundaries Auction

The "Born In My Heart" Art Auction has already begun. It runs from April 24th - April 29th (Beginning the 24th @ 9:00am PDT).

In nearly every orphanage in China, children in need of heart surgery wait to be healed. In an effort to help as many of these orphaned children as possible, Love Without Boundaries began the "Born In My Heart" art auction five years ago. This is an annual event that serves as a special tribute to the miracle of adoption, and also as a fundraiser to help provide these essential operations to children who need emergency heart surgery. You can help to save the life of a child by taking part from April 24-29. Every penny raised will help to heal precious children and give them the opportunity to grow and thrive, and perhaps even find a family of their very own. So please bid often and bid generously!Auction items will begin to launch at 9am (Pacific) on Thursday, April 24th. Nearly 300 items will be added throughout the day, and the auction will close Tuesday, April 29th (again, with items closing throughout the course of the day). They will have some absolutely incredible items this year, all donated by LWB's fabulous supporters!

You will be able to access the auction from the Love Without Boundaries website homepage at: http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/ beginning April 24th.

Please take a moment to have a look at all the beautiful items up for auction. Any donation no matter how small will make an incredible difference in the life of a child.

The Facts & Nothing But The Facts

According to Erin that is!

I was sitting here just doing nothing much on computer when Erin came over & started talking.

Mama likes:

• coffee
• soda (read coca cola NOT pepsi)
• chai
• cappuccino
• iced tea (don't get this one since I don't drink it)
• apple dippers with carmel
• Starzy (the dog)
• Troi (the cat)
• Daddy
• Me
• Herself

And Dada likes:

• models
• to play cards with me
• building things
• computers

And Erin likes:

• models
• watching tv
• Troi & Star

Now I know that there are other things we all like, but for now this is what Erin thinks. I wonder what we'll all like tomorrow.

Birthday Scrap With The Gals

The Poke Cake

Lisa checking out which pics to scrap

Mich & Jamey hard at work on their scrapping

Friday night my friends Lisa, Mich & Jamey all came out & celebrated my birthday with me. What did we do? Well, we are the ScrapSistas (formerly known as the ScrapSkanks mind you)!

We went to this marvelous little boutiquey place called Paper Niche. Friday nights they offer an evening with dinner & scrapping till midnight. Of course, they hope that you'll spend money on the supplies they have there. And goodness knows that this place has great items. In fact, while I was chatting with the owner & some employees, I even mentioned how pleased I was that they sell items I've been seeing in my scrapbooking magazines. I think that's pretty awesome. In fact, some of the stuff I purchased was found in those same magazines. Yay me!

Jamey made an awesomely yummy cake for my birthday! I'd only heard of a poke cake before, but now I can see why people make them. Super moist & definitely hit that sweet spot! Mich gave me a great 12 x 12 ladybug scrapbook. I've been wanting to do a scrapbook about Erin's hobbies, & now I have the perfect book to use! Lisa did all the driving & gave me the evening out. I love my Sistas!

The only bad thing about it was that Viv couldn't be with us to celebrate. Sheez! This whole living in Canada is putting the kibosh on our parties. Of course, I know that her spirit was with us partying the evening away.

Thanks my friends!

*******UPDATE******************

For those of you who wanted to know what a Poke Cake is:

You bake the cake, & as it's cooling, you poke holes in it with a toothpick. Then you pour either jello or pudding over the top so it seeps into the cake itself. After that, you can either frost the cake or not.

Flowers Flowers & More Flowers

From Viv, Corey & Kerri

From Daddy & Nancy

2nd Bouquet from Daddy & Nancy

(On behalf of the florist)

Let it never be said that I can ever have enough flowers! Last week my office was overflowing with birthday flowers. In fact, most of the flowers are still blooming beautifully in my office.

Okay, So We Didn't Quite Make It. Oops!

Presents have an interesting problem in our house. They can never seem to wait to be opened till the right time. Oops! This has been a problem for them since David & I got married. The presents just can't hold out. They want us to ooh & aah over them. They want to be used/read/viewed immediately if not sooner.

My birthday is this coming week, & David has been carefully planning on what to get me. Nope. No diamonds, jewelry, purses or such for me. I just really am not too interested in all that - unless we're talking about Coach or Dooney & Burke. My wants are really quite simple. This year David told me that I wasn't getting any scrapbooking supplies since in his not so humble opinion they're only consumables. (Has he noticed that his models are "consumables" also? Nope.) So I had to remind him of that lovely invention called a wish list. Duh!

I really got some great stuff (to me) this year! I absolutely love Val Kilmer & have been dying to get a copy of his movie Real Genius. He is so young in it & it really showcases his ability to do comedy. Then there's Tombstone with Kurt Russell & Val Kilmer along with a host of other actors I enjoy. Of course, David couldn't totally stay away from scrapbooking as a whole & got me 2 books that I've been wanting. Now all I have to do is actually find time to read them & put into practice what I get out of them. I also got a number of other books. This is going to be so cool!

Thanks David! I love that you so totally get me!

Great News!

Today David took Erin to her very first eye doctor appointment. We had been concerned lately because she has a tendency to hold things very close to her face for reading/viewing. She also tends to lean over a paper when doing homework. Since the two of us both wear glasses we wanted to head off any potential problems. Needless to say, I went to my sources for the name of a good eye doctor. My friend Lori gave me a recommendation to her daughter's eye doctor.

David hates taking Erin to her appointments since I'm the Keeper of all Information Deemed Important. He called me 5 times in 15 minutes for various pieces of info. I was really concerned about how Erin was going to do since she, like all other children, hates going to the doctor. David did his usual great job to prepare her for what was to come (read eye dilation here). Yes. She had a hard time but did really well.

According to David, the eye doctor was really pleased with Erin. She has no vision problems at all. He said that she's just picking up some bad habits with leaning in close to see things. Then he told David that he doesn't get to give this kind of news often enough.

Thanks for the recommendation Lori!

Has it really been 5 years?

Yes. It has. 5 years ago today at 2:45 pm I got THE CALL! 5 years ago we saw our daughter's face for the first time!

Of course, it was April Fool's Day, & I had been depressed for weeks. It had been 14 very long months since our DTC (Dossier to China) which is now known as LID (Log in Date). When Emily Jou called, her first words were "This is the call Tammie." I got so angry that I yelled at her "This is a rotten thing to do. How could you be so mean?" And I hung up on her. Talk about nuts! Thank G-d she realized what happened & instantly called me back "No Tammie. This isn't a joke. You have a daughter! Are you ready?" WAS I READY!? Hell yes!

This whole thing took place at my office. The lady who hired me, had just come in & heard/seen what was going on. Everyone there was in tears as I sat back & took the information. Because I couldn't receive attachments, I had Emily send the picture of Chun HuaXu to David. After all, I got The Call so he should get The First Peek. It was the most humbling moment of my life to hear my husband cry & tell me "She's beautiful Tam."

After we finally got our call, we had to deal with SARS. Ugh! We waited14 months to get our referral, & now China wasn't sure they wanted to let us in so we could bring our daughter home. All of the rest of The Waiting Hearts which include my dearest friends Sandra and Gretchen had been there right along with me. This was probably the most exciting time in our lives. We had spent 14 months emailing, having weekly chat sessions, cyber showers, scrapbook supplies, the sniper that hit the VA/MD/DC area. You name it, we went through it.

I wouldn't change a thing. After all, here we are 5 years later with the most perfect child for our family.