Letter from NBC - No not that NBC

On Christmas eve, the NBC sent me their letter requesting additional information for our I800 application. It appears that some of the backup information we sent did not have the appropriate wording. I called them on Monday and only got a voice mail. I was going to call today but I have decided to deal with it next Monday after the holidays when all is back to normal and I can think clearly.

End of the year clearance gets a new meaning this year...

Okay so I will confess that we are a little lagging in the blog update arena....but we have been a little busy. This year the Christmas season will end with three strong memories....

ABBA - Mamma Mia - Noley got the movie and the sound track....(if you would have ever told me I would like this movie I would have said you were nuts---but it is an adorable kid friendly fun movie---and who can resist Peirce Brosnan's bad singing...after all when you are that good looking who needs one to sing.

End of the year clearance - no, not the typical shopping kind....the barf-o-rama clean out your entire system of everything you have eaten in the past six months kind. It hit us all but Mother-in-law. How she escaped, we may never know, but the rest of the Tomatoes are feeling a little bit lighter this new years eve...

And more ABBA... yes this movie and soundtrack has played non stop in our house for the past two weeks.....

We have survived and are feeling a little bit lighter. We have no plans for new years eve but that is perfectly fine with me. My fridge is clean....my garbage cans are empty and I am completely toxin free!

Cheers to 2009 - the year of Hoo Haa.

I have stooped to new bad mom low...

Okay, so I confess...I have stooped to a new all time low. I bold faced lied to my four year old and have been caught red handed in a lie by my eight year old.

MeiMei has a really cute shirt that I bought on sale to match three sets of pants and skirts that she owns. I full on expected to get A LOT of mileage out of this shirt in terms of outfits. Well Empress Fashion Pants decided that she did not want to wear the shirt because "it has letters on it" "I do not like letters on my shirts." I showed her how soft it was and how it had nice little flowers and sparkles on the arms.

BUT NO....she would have nothing to with the shirt...so then it happened. My mouth opened and out came those fatal words of deceit. "but sweetie...do you know what the shirt says?... it says 'I love chocolate chip cookies'.." "isn't that great? you love chocolate chip cookies!" Right then Noley looked at me and said "no mom that is not what it says....it says adorable!... I quickly changed my words and said, "yes...it says I adore chocolate chip cookies!"

And guess what? She proudly put on the shirt and wore it all day and proceeded to tell everyone she met that she adored chocolate chip cookies.

With the right dress anything is possible...or so we thought....

So last month at the store, I let MeiMei pick out a dress to wear for the holidays. Obviously, this girl was not used to wearing girly things back in China...becuase since being here to the states that is ALL SHE CAN THINK ABOUT. If it is flashy...it's good....If it is shiny...it's good...If it sparkles...It's even better. If it is HoochyMama...It is the best of the best. There is just one problem...for as much as she loves all of those things. They must all be packaged in 100% soft prewashed cotton and if it is not.....it only stays on for 5 minutes. The rest of the time it sits on a hanger proudly hung in her room for all to see.

Here is MeiMei modeling her choice of this years dress for all of five minutes. Big sister Linjit offered to up the anti by curling her hair. Boy was she proud to wear hot curlers. I think it was the firs time she ever had her hair curled. God knows, I never did it....and I'm sure they did not do it in Wuzhou. That is one proud and adorable little girl...(which will be another post)

Beware of the Doghouse...

WARNING...this is NOT for the faint bladder...only empty bladders may watch this. I assume NO responsibility for any accidents that may happen. You may blame them on my brother in law... KELLY...that means you.

www.bewareofthedoghouse.com

The marketing talent behind the creation of this is brilliant. The sad part for me is I would be thrilled to have a new vacuum cleaner. What does that say about me?

Enjoy...

Holiday Shopping Ideas....

Okay call me shameless, but then again, those of you that know me know I am.... So one of my Internet china adoption friends is looking to raise money for their upcoming adoption of their first child. She has a side business making the most adorable charms for necklaces. I bought one for my birthday (oh yeah, I forgot that I gave those up to those less fortunate than I) and loved the look, uniqueness, quality and craftsmanship. So why you may ask am I rambling on about jewelry? Well it is the holiday season and my friend is running a contest to win free charms.

All you have to do is check out her site www.charmaddiction.etsy.com pick out your favorites and post their photos with a link to her site to enter to win.

So please go check out Shania's sight and see for yourself. If you are looking for a unique special holiday gift for someone, this is the place.

Here are my favorite three (I already bought my favorite favorite which was posted on my site a while back).

A little Spanish Nostalgia...

I'm selling my our old house. It is with mixed emotions that I've been asked to do this task. it is a 1928 spanish home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms located on a street filled with other spanish homes. I loved that house....we loved that house...that was the house Noley and Tobbers were born in (okay so not really...they were a C-section - but you get the drift). I have sat in that house for the past three weekends at open houses. It is really hard not to be objective since I LOVE THAT HOUSE... when people tell me they do not like this or that .. I just want to escort them to the door.... after all how dare they insult me in my home... But alas it is not my house any more. We sold it to buy our current nasty wildebeest never ending money pit of a house---which has zippo in curb appeal but lots in functionality.

For those of you that were never able to visit our home or stop by for a cocktail....I invite you now.... just stop by http://www.landparkspanishhome.com/

And no, as much as I may fantasize about moving back into our old home it just would not work with four yahoos....while it is technically the same size as the new place, our new space is used much more effecciently since we get five bedrooms plus a big bonus guest house/office aka MAN SPACE.