One thing leads to another....

I've had a sore throat since Friday...Cam is home early from school with a sore belly. BEWARE! The Wagner house is contaminated. ACK!

Conflicted...

My email inbox looks like this:

1. Focus on the Family Success in California--Traditional Marriage Restored!
2. Victoria's Secret Boucle Sweaters $29 & Up. Shop 150+ Sweater Styles.
3. Blizzard Fan Club - Dairy Queen Blizz Prez says: Let's go nuts
4. Discovery Channel Insider Survivorman NEW SEASON, Bullet-Proof Belt, the Birth of Beer & More!


Sooooo...my conservative side like reads Focus on the Family, while secretly wearing naughties from VS all while eating Blizzards from DQ and watching Discovery Channel. And you all thought you knew me. Muuhahahahahaa!!!!

Busted!!

So, I'm at the grocery store today. Making my way through the produce when WHAM! I hit the edge of the nut display and 2 cereal boxes shoot off the bottom of my cart. Uhhh...ok. Hopefully the cute guy stocking lettuce DOESN'T NOTICE, but of course HE DOES. He politely laughs and jokes. Little does he know I was looking at him when I ran into the nuts. LOL! So, we laugh about the set up of the display and I go about my shopping. I head to the deli when I realize that I have to go back over to the lettuce because that was the way I was headed when I go side-tracked by the hottie's hotness. (And I think I was trying to read his nametag! LOL!) I sheepishly make my way back to his side of the produce and have to make small talk AGAIN. Such a shame, NOT! Anyways, he joked about me forgetting to get what I came for. Ugh. At least he didn't call me Ma'am. His name was Jon H. by the way.... ;-)

Julia's bowling form

This is Julia bowling with the Wii, I just love her form. In the background, you hear Wayne and Cam doing homework and Anna singing. :-)

Speechless

Because he says I never post pics of him

ADD strikes again...

Just got a wild hair about making clippies and this is what I did today instead of working on the house. :-)

Today is the Day!

The Golden Leaves, Halloween and More Ladybugs

An autumn view from our yard....

Golden leaves

A view of Morton Rd

The corn field across from our house

Another view of Morton Rd this morning

Cam, Anna, Julia, Theresa and Wayne

A dead rat that Oliver (the dog) brought to me yesterday...Nice eh?

Julia and Jay

Ok...here's the scoop. Today I got an email from Kristi and Ian (the family that is in China and who took our photos to Director Lu). There is a picture from the Miller's but I need to ask them if it's ok to post it here first! This is what it said:

Hi Liz (and Melissa!),

(Liz if you could forward this on to Melissa somehow I can't find her address right now...)

Just wanted to let you guys know that your albums were delivered safe and sound. I gave them to the SWI assistant director Wang on Monday. Tuesday Director Lu surprised us by showing up for the adoption proceedings and he let us know that he had them. Yesterday (Thursday) on our visit he wanted to take a picture of us with the albums and the banner. The banner said something about wishing happy life for the children and their Chinese names are on it somewhere. Let me know if you don't have anyone to translate it for you (for free) and when I get Zoey to translate it for me again I'll let you know. I'll also send you a higher resoluton copy of this picture when I get back to the states, but for now I just wanted you to be able to see it. The photo is our family, Dirctor Lu, and Caleb's foster mother. Director Lu said that the pictures would go to the foster families after yesterday, he just wanted to get the photo first.

We've got a full day and I've got to get packed up for our move on to Guangzhou. I was so glad to be able to deliver the albums for you ~ Director Lu was so pleased! I'll be in touch again soon!

Blessings,

Kristi

OK....so, back to this whole ladybug picture thing. As most of you know, I love ladybugs (hence my blog name...) and today, I had 2 little ladybugs on my side window. One flew off and the other rode the entire way from our house to Scottville...that's like 10 miles! How cool was that? Right now it's warm here and there are tons of bugs and tons of ladybugs. I just got the feeling today that Julia's foster mom was getting to see the new pictures of Julia. I got a sense of peace, that she knows that Julia (or as she knew her Yin Gui!) was ok and well taken care of. I've been on Cloud 9 all damned day! :-) What a great feeling!!

Thursday Morning Heaven.......

Creme Horns make me happy. Not like Disney World happy, but somewhere between "the kids are gone for the day" and "getting new jewelry" happy. :-)

Conversations with Cameron

Me: Hey, I really enjoy spending time with you when we're alone! (Cam and I are shopping for his Halloween costume)

Cameron: Well, I should think so.

The buzz around our house

So this past summer Wayne took out a HUGE hornets nest right above one of our living room windows. While Julia was sitting at the computer which is right next to that window, she yells out, "Daddy, I see a bee's nest!" Wayne figured she was talking about the new little one that is on the garage wall. Wellll...these pictures show what exactly Julia was talking about. This nest is located in a giant tree that hangs over the garage. During the summer and early fall, the leaves covered it, so NO ONE knew it was there! Now that the leaves have left, we can see it. YIKES! I wanted Wayne to get on the garage roof and try to knock it down. Needless to say, he's not jumping to do it. LOL!

Que pasa?

Yesterday we got little American flags that were MADE IN CHINA. Patriotism at it's best.

Too cool!

A few weeks back, Liz and I found out about a family who was adopting from Julia and Isaac's orphanage (Xianning City, Hubei--Xian'An SWI) and we asked if they would be willing to take photo albums back to Director Lu for us...well, they said YES and they are in Wuhan as we speak! They are getting their son Caleb today! That means our pictures should be going along with them. Ok, Ok...I am more excited for the family (Hi Kristi and Ian!) but the possibility of Julia and Isaac's foster moms getting the pictures is super exciting for Liz and I. We also snuck our addresses and emails into the letters we had translated, so...we could be even hearing from Julia's foster mom if we get UNBELIEVABLY lucky. (Insert nervous smiley here!) Anyways...here's a link to Kristi and Ian's blog: http://fireworksandfireflies.blogspot.com/ Yet another beautiful story of a family made larger by God and adoption!

I'm so not an Idol fan...but....

I have to admit...I've never watched an episode of American Idol. I'm not a giant fan of their format (no debating this, it's just my opinion! LOL!)...ANYWAYS, I heard a song on the radio earlier and was like, "Hey, I like this song...wonder who it is?" Well...it's a cutie named David Archuleta. Well, damn. He's good! I love his song, "Crush". Go figure. Cam rolled his eyes at me like I should have know who he was. I suddenly felt outta touch. EEEK!

My new bag lady! Greenwillow Crafts

While searching Etsy for any number of recent things, I came across a SUPER nice lady who makes bag. These oh-so-tiny mini bags for the girls to give their friends presents in (a pair of hair clippies is going to fit just right!). I also purchased 2 bigger bags that are made out of the cutest Chinese (or Japanese) paper doll material. I'm soooo excited! Here's a link to Ann's Etsy Shop. She is super nice to work with and got my bags VERY QUICK! Anyways, I'm just thrilled to support another fellow crafter. :-) Oh yeah, she's from a little town outside of Raleigh called Wendell.

Julia's outfit

Red and white top on clearance from JCP: $4.97

Striped cord skirt from TCP bought at Goodwill: $1.97

Boots from Target: $12.99

Bow from Tonni: FREE!

One cute as heck little girl: PRICELESS!

Maybe an Obama/Palin ticket?

Oops...almost forgot

So the pics I posted below are of Julia's b-day at Chuck E Cheese's. We had a great time! Jay (The Danielson's son) was a little wild man and Julia had a fun time following him. My friend Jaime and his twins were there with us too. River and Finley are just adorable and Julia loves to hang out with them too. Jaime and I grew up together, our dads work together and now our kids are having fun playing.

The last photos are of Cam's last game with his coaches. Hard to believe it's all over, but Cam had a great time and we hope that he will be able to play next year. :-)

Ju's b-day and Cam's last game

Ju and Jay

Wayne and Cam
River
Finley and Julia
Cam
Anna and Jay (again!)

Ju and Chuck E. Cheese
Julia on the ride
Jaime, Julia and River
Coach talking it up at the last game
Coach Karl, Cameron, Coach Wiese and Autumn