August referrals are on their way!

Well, it's official today - the CCAA completed their matching process and the official cut-off is May 15, 2006 - a 5-day referral month. Only 60 more days until we're matched with our daughter. Yippee!

Here's the official notice:

8/16/2010
CCAA

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before May 15, 2006.

Love this saying

I was at Archiver's (scrapbooking store) doing one of their "Make and Take" events and one of the items we got to make used this amazing stamp. I just loved it. It just made me think that even though we've been waiting over 4 years for our daughter now (our 4 year LID anniversary was on July 14th) I still need to remember to live in the moment and enjoy life as I have it right now. For once she's here - our life will cease to exist as we know it now.

July Referrals are in!

Well, this is HUGE! We had a very large number of days covered this month. Yippee! What a wonderful way to come back from vacation (I'll save that for another post once I've had a chance to download and sort through our vacation photos)

There were 14 days referred this month! Only 65 more referral days to go until we are referred our little girl. We are getting so close!! I can hardly believe it!

7/16/2010
CCAA

The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before May 10, 2006.

Devil's Lake - West Bluff Trail

I'm a week behind on this post, but better late than never...

Last Saturday we went hiking again back in Devil's Lake State Park and hiked the West Bluff Trail. It was a beautiful hike once we got through the forested area and had wonderful views of the bluffs. The only problem we ran into was when I slipped on a rock and got myself all scratched and bruised up from a tree branch - even a week later, it's some lovely shades of blue, green, black and assorted other colors. I don't recommend it!

So, here are some of the lovely views from the trail. (Note: The bird is a turkey vulture)

Quilt is finally done!

Well, I finally got our daughter's lap quilt all done - the final touch was for me to hand sew the binding to the back of the quilt. It took me one evening and an afternoon of beautiful weather (nothing better than sitting on your deck in the shade!) and it was done. I just love how it turned out. My swap-mates sent me beautiful squares to work with. My mom did an amazing job of sewing. My quilting friend Debbie guided us as we worked - we couldn't have done it without her.

Next up, her 100 Good Wishes Quilt. If anyone has pattern ideas, I'm all ears!

Sewing on the binding

Yesterday, my mom came in town to get the binding sewn on our daughter's lap quilt I'm (more like my mom and I'm just there for moral support) making. It's been a labor of love. Every imperfection that we made is just more reason to love it. I think it is turning out beautifully, but I'm a bit biased of course! I can't wait for her to snuggle with it. Next job is mine - hand stitching the binding to the back. Something to do while watching a movie or TV at night...

Me holding the quilt after I trimmed off the excess fabric and batting.

My mom sewing on the binding. Just look at that concentration! Gotta love her!

Holding the final product! A sight to behold!  :-)
Just the hand stitching to go and it's done!

June Referrals are IN!!

Well, while it wasn't a stellar month of matches - they matched those logged-in with dates of March 22 - 26, 2006. A 5-day referral month.

Only 79 more referrals days to go until we're matched with our daughter!

As one of my adoption friends so wonderfully put it today - some of us could be holding our daughters this time next year! How wonderful a thought is that?!

Blue Mound State Park

Well, today we decided to visit another Wisconsin state park - Blue Mound State Park. From the lookouts, you get this magnificent view of the surrounding area. It's the highest point in southern Wisconsin.

We started out and had lunch at this very traditional little diner in Mount Horeb on our way. The diner is an institution!

From there, I spotted this cool barn along the way - we had to stop so I could take its picture. I mean really, we live in WISCONSIN - home of barns, cows, cheese, and beer!

We finally made it to Blue Mounds and had this amazing view... WOW! For those who don't know, the driftless region is where the glaciers, when they were coming down North America, missed this little region - so the geology of the area is very different (there are actually hills!). It's located in the four corners of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.

When we climbed the West Tower, we could see the storm coming, and decided it was time to leave. Five minutes after we got in the car, the rain hit. Downpour, really... But, you can't beat some quality time with your hubby!!

Hiking in Devil's Lake

Today's been an awesome day!

We started out hiking in Devil's Lake - we hiked the Balanced Rock trail. It was such a beautiful day. The weather was just perfect and the scenery was even more so.

Then, we had a quick trip to the Brat Fest for veggie brats and hot dogs (I know... sacrilegious if you live in Wisconsin... but what can I do - I don't like 'em, never have...)

Now for the end of the day, we going for beers at the Great Dane brewery. MMMM! A lovely end to a lovely day!

Signs of Summer

Well, it's certainly been feeling like summer around here. We've been at nearly 90 degrees the past few days and I can certainly say that these are NOT typical Wisconsin May temperatures! It's supposed to be like this until around Wednesday. It's just plain HOT! Humidity is my enemy (as anyone with curly hair will attest to!).

I did get most of my herbs planted in my deck boxes - this year it's sweet basil, thai basil, oregano, and rosemary. I still have to get my mint, but the last nursery was out of it. Something to do today.

Earlier in the spring, we did buy a new bird feeder and it is now like a bird sanctuary around here. We've been getting lots of house finches, goldfinches, cardinals, sparrows and unfortunately some doves who like to be naughty and scare away the smaller song birds and sit on the bird feeder that is too small for them. Ah well. I try to scare them away when I catch them, but they don't seem to catch the hint.

Here's a photo Robert caught of a male cardinal, a sparrow and some house finches on the feeder. Happy birds!! We really enjoy just looking outside and watching them. It's very relaxing.