A BREATH OF SUNSHINE

Looks who's coming tomorrow to visit Mesa and ME!!!!!

Julie was able to score a deal on tickets and was gracious enough to think of me and my needs for some serious Tessie Time. I am so excited to get to see these two rays of sunshine.

OVER- LET'S MOVE ON.....

Is any one else happy the Olym*pics are over??? I really do love watching the Olym*pics. This time around I saw a total of 20 minutes. NO time to sit down and watch. I did taped the Opening Ceremony for later viewing pleasure WHEN I have time. The few weeks (months actually) approaching the Olym*pics, I had uneasiness about this whole thing. I worried that "something" like demonstrations of human rights issues would cause a MAJOR kink in the process of the adoption of Tate. The referral rumors of the whys, the what ifs and the what now have totally taken a toll on me and my emotions. This next two batches of referrals will hopefully give us a glimpse of what is to come. Will they speed up? Slow down? Stay the same?

LOVING ME SOME BULLETS....

• While visiting the Salsa bunch, I also got to meet some wonderful Bloggy people. I had such a great time hanging with these gals and kids at Gilroy Gardens that I totally forgot to take out my camera and snap a few pictures. I got to meet some of the first blogs I read.... Donna and Lisa. Donna went PW but has since has . Lisa was always fun to read cause she is creative crafty and cute AND is the twin of Michelle, who I met on the 2007 Disn*yland trip. OH.MY.HECK. I got to meet a fellow LIDer keep the faith Kasey. I was riding a boat ride with the twins and Mary-Mia and looked up to see the radiant smile of Kasey. I swear, but that gal looks like Muriel Hemingw*y. Oh she also looks like my cousin Susan. As I talked to her about the same "stuff" that is my life right now, I felt like I was talking to family and a long lost friend.... WHERE WAS MY CAMERA???? I cannot wait to introduce Tate to Jennifer and all the other bloggie kiddos, when we are ALL finally HOME.
  
  



• Mary-Mia's mom got me started on my first supplies for Bento fun. I did add to the stash and now in a plastic box waits molds, picks, and fun stuff to get Tate into the Bento fun.
  




• I am so lame and LATE, but I wanted to congratulate all new parents, especially Aly and Ford. What an adorable baby Lizzie is!
  
  



• I switched out Mesa's food last time I bought her dog food. I SLOWLY incorporated her new food to her old food. Throughout all of the forty lbs. of dog food Mesa had loose stools..... I started to worry that because she drinks and swims in questionable water, she just might have parasites or giardia. Since I have never established her with ONE vet, I decided to go to a new place that I would establish her at. Loved the place. One of the things I found out was that Mesa is now 98 lbs. In P*tsmart she always weighed 90-91 lbs and so I was shocked she weighed sooooo much! Needless to say, she is watching what she eats and tries to be more active. I guess the good thing is this also affects me and my amount of excersise. So glad the hot summer temperatures are cooling off making it more pleasant to go for long nice walks. She was negitive to any parasites, so I am blaming the new food for this loosage. She is now back to her old brand of food.
  




• I have made a conscious decision NOT to be freakin' out about the lack of Hague accredition for my Adoption Agency. I have so many other things to think about and stuff that I can control that I feel I will just let the dust settle and see where all this lack of accreditation puts me. This is a just the way I CHOSE to roll. I would like to thank those who have emailed me sharing that they are in the same spot with the lack of accreditation. I thank you for sharing information of what their agencies are doing to handle these things. I have said in the past about my small agency's lack of knowledge and management, I know their heart is solid on helping me get Tate in my arms. With faith I move on.
  
  



• I have been thinking how I will handle the blog when I travel to China. I really do not like navigating through the adoption sites when I follow traveling trips and really do not want to subject others to this. I have a ton of people who I would love to have follow along here locally but am not sure if I want to open myself up to my past thoughts that this blog contains. So I am thinking I will do a travel only blog and then start a new blog with the after life with Tate. I find it so hard to follow along when blogs go password, so this will not be something for me. Any thoughts of this?
  

CHINA LESSONS

Lucky me!!! I spent three fun filled days with four of China's best little girls. Besides having screamin' fun....... lessons were learned as well.

(Liza B 7, MiMi 7, Nora 7, YuYu 8)
the three on the right are siblings- their momma should be sainted

LESSONS LEARNED......

1. 
   I guess I am one naive noodle eater. I always thought Ramen noodles were the kind of noodle kids from China eat. Silly Lisa, the best (and they are delish) noodles are the ones found in the Asian grocery.
   

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
2. I have always been pretty proud that I am such a great chopstick user.. until I met YuYu and Nora. I was quick to learn that I hold my chopstick wrong..... I needed to cross the top in an "X" to wow these two chopstick experts. Both YuYu and Nora were both 4 1/2 when brought home from China. There is about 18 months difference in age between Nora and YuYu. MiMi was about 11 months. YuYu, MiMi and Nora have a 11 year old sister Elle who happened to be at G#rls Sc*ut camp..... Like I said before, their momma needs to be sainted since she is a single momma with a house full of lovin" China beauties. The beauty on the far left is Liza B.... she is best buds with MiMi and part of our Single Momma's group. (SWAC).
   

I had decided that since I was spending my three days off hangin' with the gals, I was going to enjoy it. I had no other EXPECTATIONS for the day BUT have fun... so we did lots of Summer water things. I exchanged my small SUV for the family van.... the van I loved. On the drives the four girls would sing..... Since three of the gals were in first grade together, they sang their patriotic spring program. In tears I listened to the sweet voices sing America, Yankee Doodle Dandy and others. I glance in the rear view mirror into the bright faces of the NOW Chinese-American gals.....

What heart warm lessons I have learned.

****GASP****

According to RQ, I am now on the chart.... MARCH 7 2006. I guess her guess as good as mine. It will be great when the Oly#pics are over and life for the C*AA will go back to what is their "NORMAL".

BAKIN' THE SALSA WAY...

Slacker me... busy ME! I have been working tons... I do have a few posts to catch up on AND some bullets later. I guess when it comes to me and blogging it is either feast or famine.....

Enjoy the eye catching FEAST of the antics of the Salsa Twinadores..

The ever talented Marie (L) demonstrating her two handed stirring technique while Rose (R) advises from the sideline....

Twinadore stirring....

Marie's motion defying swirling of the wooden spoon.
Mixing is tough work as evident on Rosie's face.

Give a sistah a hand would ya pleeeeze?

At last, the best part of the baking is the licking of the spoon (Rose)

LISA'S SUPER MOIST CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE

This is not what Marie and Rose and I made but soooooo delish that I had to share. This cake is sooooo moist. It would be a great addition to your end of the Summer holiday picnic.

LISA'S SUPER MOIST CHOCOLATE SHEET CAKE

(also know as the Texas sheet cake... since I am not from Texas, liberties were taken to rename)

2 squares (1 cup) butter
2 TB cocoa
1 cup water
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 eggs, well beaten
1 /2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1 /4 tsp salt

In large bowl place dry ingredients. In sauce pan melt butter, cocoa, water and bring to boil. Pour over dry ingredients and beat well. Add 2 well beaten eggs and buttermilk. Beat well again. Pour into prepared 9 x 13 inch pan back at 375 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes or until center is done. While cake is baking, make frosting.

FROSTING
In pan, melt 1 square butter, 4 (+) TB cocoa, 6 TB milk and bring to boil. Pour over 1 box powdered sugar and mix well. Add 1 tsp vanilla and 1 cut chopped nuts. Beat well. Pour hot frosting over hot or warm cake. Spread very carefully. Cool before serving.

ONCE AGAIN....

I stopped posting my LIDiversary at the two year mark..... but decided why not??? So here it is the month of August's 2008 number is.....


I am not really a cat person (except for the Salsa cats Mango and Zena- who could not get enough of me) .... in fact I am ALLERGIC to cats...... funny that this was the only number 29 that spoke to me.

SADLY....(UPDATED)

NO ***HAGUE FOR ME......

I am okay with this... because it was expected- no shock. All will work out, I just need to remember the joy at the end of this long winding road.

*** Hague is the new accreditation that US Adoption agencies need to have to qualify to do China adoptions.... at least this is my understanding.