Baby Shower for Kris' New Daughter

Yesterday was a wonderful day. One of Kris' friends organized a wonderful baby/birthday shower for Cate - her new daughter. Today is Cate's 4th birthday. Kris is leaving on Wednesday for China to pick her up. I am so excited for her. Below is a picture of Kris' new daughter, Cate. Isn't she just too cute.

November Matches Are In

UPDATED INFO: The next set of matches have arrived at the agencies. It is now official that the cut-off is February 17, 2006 - a 2-day referral month. SUCKS!! It's not surprising that it's a low number of referral days this month will all of the melamine issues being dealt with and having all of the children being tested for kidney stones relating to it. It is just so sad.

The only good thing I can think of right now is that our daughter probably isn't born yet and am hopeful that this melamine issue isn't going to be a lingering problem when we travel to pick up our daughter. It's disheartening to think of the thousands of children who now are in the midst of being tested and found to have melamine stones in their kidneys. My heart goes out to those parents.

We Did Our Civic Duties

Robert and I both voted today. Robert went at 7 am and endured a 1-hour wait and I went around 2 pm and went right through. Yeah for me! Tonight we're going to a friend's house to enjoy some pizza and beer and watch Obama win the election (I hope!). It should be a fun night!





UPDATE: It's amazing to me to watch the world reacting to Obama's victory. I think it's a positive step forward! May we have a positive 4 years of change ahead...

Get out and VOTE!!

Election Day is tomorrow, so don't forget to get out to the polls. This is going to be a landmark election. I can't wait to get out and vote!

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a spook-tacular Halloween today! I'm off to volunteer at the Red Cross today and then get ready for the onslaught of about 75 kids ringing the doorbell. It should be a fun day. Tonight we are ordering a pumpkin-shaped pizza for dinner. Should be a great day!

Our First Day of Snow

Yes, it's only October 27th and it is snowing outside. YUCK!! I am just not ready for winter to make its arrival, but here it came... I better bundle up and put on my winter coat for the day... Thank g-d for central heating!

Another true sign it's cold outside - you get a snuggly kitty... That and multiple requests from her to be placed on the bed and under the covers (she's too old to jump up on the bed now on her own, so she'll meow until you put her up there).

The Melamine problem seems to be growing

Well, the newest scare is now involving eggs found to have high melamine levels. They seem to be thinking that it can be traced to the feed given to the chickens that laid the eggs.

The government said in a statement it found 4.7 parts per million of melamine in the eggs produced by a division of China's Dalian Hanwei Enterprise Group based in the northeastern port city Dalian. The legal limit of melamine in Hong Kong is 2.5 ppm.

The new results have prompted officials to expand food testing to meat imports from China.

In an earlier egg-related food safety scare, the banned cancer-causing industrial dye, Sudan Red, was used to color egg yolks.

The Hong Kong government also said it found excessive amounts of melamine in Blueberry Cream Sandwich crackers made by Philippine company Croley Foods MFG. Corp.

I think what we can all learn from this is NOT to buy any food item made in China until all of this mess is cleared up!!

Better Late than Never...

So, I'm extremely behind in my postings these days. It's just been rough since we've been back from our vacation at the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. So, now I am finally getting to post a few pix from our trip. We were there from August 30th through September 9th. It was a wonderful 10-day vacation that we both just loved!! We woke up every morning and had beautiful scenery and some great hiking. The weather, for the most part, was decent. We did have snow and hail one day. Thankfully for us, it was a travel day from when we drove from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone National Park. Note: these are only 12 out of the 1500 photos that we took. I am sparing your eyes... Here are the highlights of our trip.

Here we are enjoying an evening cocktail inside the Old Faithful Inn. It was so amazing there. Definitely have to go back!!

This is what a traffic jam looks like in Yellowstone...

Wednesday Funnies

In honor of my parent's visit to Madison on Monday, I thought a little family humor would be in order. Plus, as Robert already knows... I'm always "right."

Seeing the Fall Colors

This past Sunday, Robert took another flying lesson that I got to join in on. We went out (with his flight instructor) to look at the beautiful fall colors of Door County, WI. The views were just amazing. Here are just a few of the views out the airplane window. It was just breath-taking! We left around 8:30 am and got home around 4:00 pm. It was a very enjoyable day.