CCAA Update & Visited Santa

September, 2006 dossiers are officially out of review! No word on the next round of referrals. People are hoping they'll come next week. They used to try to get a batch out right before Christmas, but if referrals come next week, I wouldn't expect another round until January.



Monday night I took the girls to see Santa. I wanted them to stop adding things to their lists. The lists have now gone away, so hopefully they'll forget most of what was on their list and won't be disappointed when they don't get 50 things under the tree. Santa was great though. He saw their list and said "just 5 things". I had already made them each circle 3-5 items that they really wanted.

Hopefully we'll get the tree up this weekend. It's supposed to snow, but the news station I usually watch isn't commiting to an amount. Just that there's a winter storm warning Saturday with the worst Saturday afternoon into Saturday night. Oh joy, the girls have dance Saturday and we usually don't get out of there until 4:30. It's also really cold and really windy! My computer says it's 4 degrees right now. Winter is here.

An 8 Year Old's Christmas List

Okay, this list is just too cute not to share. This is Jessica's Christmas list. She's torn between wanting to be a teenager with all the electronic gadgets that go with it, but then throws in some items showing she's only 8.

1. Nintendo DS
2. Nintendo DS Dolphin game
3. Heelies
4. A Panda Bedroom
5. 2 More Webkinz - Black Cat & Bulldog
6. A Cleaner Yard
7. Laptop Computer
8. iPod or MP3 Player
9. Blue Clothes
10. American Girl doll - Julie
11. More Stuffed Animals
12. Verizon Wireless Chocolate Cell Phone
13. Yahtzee Game
14. 29 More Postcards, Please
15. Make-up
16. Arts & Crafts
17. Another Tomogatchi
18. Note Pad
19. Lucy & Jinny [our dog & cat] to stop fighting [they already have]
20. Alarm Clock
21. Adding to the Panda Room
22. A large bedroom, pretty please
23. Faster Internet
24. A cooked chicken in the refridgerator
25. Fifth Harry Potter Movie
26. Chinese Desk
27. Another Goldfish
28. Chinese New Year decorations
29. 50 Snacks
30. Hermione [from Harry Potter] as a sister instead of Anna
31. a puppy
32. Model Magic
33. A Flying Car
34. Blue Plates
35. Carrie Underwood, Martina McBride, Leann Rimes and/or TimMcGraw CD
36. Faux Fur bed for Lucy [our dog]
37. Guess Who game
38. Snakes & Ladders game
39. Lots more presents
40. Blue Pajamas
41. Ratatouille movie
42. Digital Camera
43. Lemon Drops
44. My own Choxies [truffles from Target]
45. Fake Medium Diamond
46. Another tag for Lucy
47. Blue Recorder
48. Chinese YoYo
49. Dumplings
50. Jungle animal wall paper and green tile for downstairs
51. Dixie and Penny [our toy poodles who died] have a wonderful Christmas
52. Flat Screen TV
53. like the princess table except I want it blue
54. Hair Spray movie
55. Blue Wreath
56. Bird Feeder
57. Green Ornament

Too cute! She knows she's not getting the laptop, iPod or room redone overnight. I don't know for sure what she's getting. My sister-in-law and niece Mariah really loved the list and thought it was worth sharing. Anna's list is much more realistic.

1 Year LID Anniversary

Okay, so by virtue of it being Thanksgiving Day, I did celebrate my one year LID anniversary with family. The girls had a great time with their cousins and I enjoyed spending time with my nieces, nephew, brothers, sister-in-law and mom. I didn't bring up that it was my 1 year LID. I didn't really want to dwell on it. I never ever dreamed I would have made so little progress in a year. But, it's one year down. One year less I will have to wait. And after hearing tonight that a dear friend has brain and lung cancer, I feel very grateful to still be healthy.

To my DTC/LID groups, I'm sorry I haven't been able to maintain the enthusiasm I had in the beginning. It's so hard to be excited when we have no idea how high the wait will climb to. It could be 2 years from LID, it could climb to 5. Hopefully, things will start looking up in the not too distant future. I'd like to hope my wait won't get longer than 3 years. That's the longest I can even begin to think about right now. I hope we will soon see some sort of speed up. By that I mean, I hope we see more than 4 months of LID's being referred in the coming year.

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! May you spend your day safe and sound and with those you love. May you remember to be thankful for what you have knowing there are many others with much less, and many others in need of basic items like food, shelter and clothing.

Some Movement

My agency reports that CCAA has finished reviewing the September, 2006 LID's dossiers. Someone on my October list reports being questioned on some items. That means they'll probably be reviewing my dossier in the next month. I'm a little nervous. I hope I slide through.

Leaves, Leaves and More Leaves

Although the trees in my yard would not require that I rake at all, my neighbors each have trees that require me to rake. The leaves on those trees don't typically fall until mid November, so every year I hope that I can rake before the snow covers them up. Sunday afternoon I decided to try to get as many raked as possible. Of course today its windy and my one neighbor has not raked, so his leaves will be all over my yard by the end of the day. Ugh!

Anyway, I got out my one rake and went back to the garage to do something, and the girls took over. They were raking the front yard with the kiddie rake and mine. So, in an effort to strike while the iron was hot, we went to the hardware store and bought 2 more rakes, so all three of us could rake. I managed to get much of the garage packed to one side so I can get the car in the garage once it starts to snow. (Small garage, minivan, so I only park in the garage when I have to, so snow plows can do the street and my driveway.) While the girls raked and bagged the leaves in the larger half of the front yard, I managed to finish the rest of the yard. I didn't expect to finish more than the front yard, so I was very pleased to get it all done at once. The girls were really helpful this year. Yes, there was some moving leaves from my piles to theirs, and some jumping in the piles, but it was nice that they are big enough now to actually help rather than hinder.

Slow Progress

CCAA finished referrals up to December 8, 2005 Log-In Dates. I was hoping they might get through the next few months in 2 months or less for each month, but it doesn't look like it based on this group. I hear March, 2006 is another huge month. My agency only has 3 LID's in December, so I really hope it doesn't take more than 3 months to get to some 2006 LID's. Oh well. At least it's 8 days and not 2.

Toothless Anna & Our New Family Member - Jinny

Thursday afternoon Anna went to the dentist who said it looked like her 2 wiggly teeth would fall out within the week. Thursday night I helped get the first one out. Today, the second one came out. Anna was so excited to get her first visit from the Tooth Fairy. I'm sure she'll be awake earlier than normal tomorrow knowing the Tooth Fairy will make her second visit in the night if she doesn't forget.



Thursday night we also decided to pool all of our coins from our piggy banks, and then we rummaged around the house and in the car for every coin we could find. We surprisingly came up with $93.20. So I kicked in the extra so we could go to the Humane Society Friday night and see if they had any kittens we liked. I've really been missing Penny and I just can't afford another dog right now although eventually I intend on getting another one. But I've also been debating on getting a cat for quite awhile now.




We had a really good time looking for the money and then coming up with a list of names. Ginger was the winning name, unless of course we found a black cat. Ginger just didn't seem like the right name for a black cat. So what did we find? A black and white kitten. She's 3 months old. She came with the name Bailey, but while I was filling out the paperwork, the girls decided they wanted to name her Jinny. "J" Jessica wanted, and Jinny is after Ginny Weasley from the Harry Potter books. The kitty is cute, cuddly and playful. The first night was really hard because Lucy, our toy poodle, wanted so badly to play with her, and I felt more comfortable keeping them apart. Lucy whined a good part of the night and I don't function well on no sleep. But she quit that after that first night. Here are some pictures of Anna and Jinny. Lucy is officially Jessica's dog and Jinny is officially Anna's cat. When we get another dog it can be mine according to the girls.