Our Thoughts Are With You Cousin Al...

Hey Big Al we just wanted to let you know that are thoughts are with you this week and that we are sending lots of postive thoughts and prayers your way.... XOXOXO The West Coast Tomatos...

Little Bunny... er I mean Baby... FuFu

Next month will mark the two year anniversary of when I opened up my email and saw this precious little face looking back at me. September use to mark the month long celebration of my birthday, going back to school, cooler weather and allergies...now it reminds me of seeing our MeiMei aka Little Bunny FuFu for the very first time. What a face.

We waited five LONG months to travel to China to bring her home. The wait now seems so long ago. On one hand the sights, sounds and smells of China seem so close....yet so long ago.

I have no idea how long we will wait to travel to China to pick up HooHaa. The process for HooHaa is so differenet from MeiMei. With MeiMei the cart was in front of the horse....with HooHaa the cart is trying to pull the horse ---with me being the cart and the us government being the horse. At times the lack of control in the process really gets to me. I am hoping to know this week if our homestudy is complete. Once complete, this cart is going to add jet packs to get that darn horse to move...Please Please Please Universe let us get our dossier to China in September for my birthday. This was my wish two years ago and I am asking once again for the last time I PROMISE.

Our Father....

For I have....pulled my Kids out of Catholic School....Hallejulah...Praise be to God... Yes it is true.

This week I walked in to the school office and said that's it I'm done! I have spent the past two years sucking it up in the vain of better education via private school. What I learned was that the emperor has no clothes on and I cannot stomach the lies anymore.
36 kids in a class with one teacher...NO MORE
Lower than Public School Standards....NO MORE
Unfriendly Families that cannot muster a smile or hello....NO MORE
$2000 a year in Mandatory Scrip...NO MORE
Teachers that cannot even look an adult in the eye...NO MORE
Teachers that do not return repeated phone calls and avoid you in the hallway...NO MORE
Principles that say because my son pinched his twin sister on the butt cheek that it is sexual harrashment and will not be tolerate...NO MORE
Parents who who spend more time posturing than spending time with their kids...NO MORE
Parents who care more about appearances than what their children are NOT learning in school...NO MORE
Classrooms where parents are NOT allowed to be present or monitor EVER... NO MORE

NO MORE NO MORE NO MORE...

Our Father... we are FREE...and this year so will be our schooling....FREE. We are launching in to the abyss of public education. It is quite scary and a little bit exciting at the promise of having access to more opportunities for my kids to learn. The only thing I will miss at HoleySpit is paying to eliminate the ghetto factor. Not that the kids new school will have a ghetto factor, but that when making the decision to send you kids to private school there is a certain amount of paying to isolate from factors you would rather not have them exposed to when living in the big city.

I'm jumping into another leap of faith..... and I'm NOT talking about Catholicism.

It feels like a cold day in

Yep! that is what I am feeling like these days and I plod along on this darn task called the paper chase. I keep thinking I am at the end and then there is one more thing I need to track down or do before we send off for our USCIS approval. I understand that with the new Hague treaty stuff that our government is experiencing a backlog of requests. It appears that the right hand does not know what the left is doing and so therefor they do nothing at all. I am hearing horror stories of it taking three months to get a fingerprint appointment. Last time with meimei it took us 12 days from start to finish to get our US approval to adopt. This time...well it feels like a cold day in....

Uncle John....if you are out there....we may need to to contact the big guns....

Hurry Up China! My Son Needs Some Shoes!

Doggone this darn paperchasing process.... I wish we could speed up the USCIS and CCAA, cause my boy needs some shoes and I wanna buy them.. Just look at this adorable little guy and his shoes. Clearly once home and part of this shoe horse family....things will change...

Nice pants though...why I'm darn sure DaddyO has a pair just like them!

Hey... Who's in the drivers seat here?

The State Fair starts tomorrow and for the past couple of days the yahoos have been ganging up on me trying all forms of negotiation to get me to take them to the fair on opening day. From making their beds, emptying trash and feeding the cat ---they are pulling out all of the stops in their attempt to sway my decision. They had made a list of all the rides and food they was to eat at this years fair. They have decided the best place to park, the order of events and where they want to get their photos taken. (yikes, what have I created?) Despite their rather impressive gestures, with temperatures expected in the 105 range.... I think I'm still going to hold fast on my decision to wait till next week. Heading to the state fair is the signal of the end of summer, so there is no way we can miss summer of 08's farewell. Good try guys...

How many rubber bands can your hair accomodate?

Well, if you let a four year old style your hair, you will learn that the answer is A LOT!

Yes MeiMei loves to style hair and her favorite part is the making of ponytails. She has been putting ponytails in my hair since she came home to us at three years old. She is obsessed with ponytails. Aside from the frightening look of my hair from behind...what is much more scary is the fact that I often leave the house forgetting that I have several of these little things stuck in the back of my head.