Destress Your Life Through Food

Instead of relaying depressing adoption woes, I decided to post today about my favorite topic - food. I was brought up in a great family where at breakfast, you discussed lunch, at lunch you discussed dinner and at dinner time you discussed the next day's breakfast. Of course, I think my mom is the world's greatest cook!

With all of the stress of a Chinese adoption, I find pleasure in eating some great comfort food. This recipe is one of my favorites for brunches. For those who don't know what a blintz is - it's the Jewish form of a filled crepe. You can find them in the frozen section of your local grocery store.

Blintz Soufflé

2 pkgs Blintzes (I like either fruit or cheese blintzes)
1 stick butter
4 eggs, well beaten
1-1/2 cups sour cream
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tablespoon orange juice (optional - I never use)

Melt butter in a 2-quart Pyrex and place blintzes over melted butter in one layer.
Blend other ingredients with eggs and pour over blintzes.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until top starts to brown.

Note: You can use light sour cream to keep the calories down a bit, but NOT the FAT FREE sour cream - doesn't work.

Happy Eating!!

Our 2-Year Anniversary of our LID

Well, today marks our second anniversary of being logged-in in China. It's not exactly a celebratory occasion for us. It's been more of a roller coaster ride! This wait is enough to test even the most patient of persons. It's just hard to grasp the fact that we're only half-way through this whole process. When we started, we never imagined that it would progress to this - who could have! Even during SARS, the waits were only about 18 months or so, so there was nothing that could have prepared us for this lengthy wait to our daughter. But, 2 years later, here we are still waiting for the wonderful day when we get our referral.

As we speak, our paperwork is still sitting in line waiting for our LID (log-in date) to be next in line for our referral. The referral is the official package that our agency, CCAI, will receive from the CCAA on our behalf with information about our daughter. It will contain her Chinese name, her age, where she is living, her medical condition, pictures and any other information the orphanage or foster family provides. It's hard to imagine the number of files (dossiers) still ahead of us - and it has to be thousands of them. So, our wait continues...

Sunday Funnies

I'm not experiencing any computer problems, but thought this was too funny! Enjoy!

Art Fair On the Square

This year was the 50th Anniversary of the Art Fair on the Square. We were also blessed by the weather gods today as it stopped raining just before the art fair began this morning. It was also very comfortable weather and overcast, making for an enjoyable stroll around the square. I went with my lovely artist friend Judy and we got inspired to paint again. Afterwards, we had drinks and lunch at the Old Fashioned restaurant. I went for the Mojito (Yum!) and Judy went for the Bloody Mary with a beer chaser. All I can say, is that our smiles were at least a mile wide.

This painting is by one of the artists at the Art Fair on the Square (Shelby Keefe) - this one is of the Chinatown in SanFrancisco. I chose this painting to post because this was Judy's favorite artist at the fair and because it's of Chinatown (China theme). I just love the bright colors and great brush strokes! (note: even better in person!)

Surfer Dudes!

Well, my sister sent me this photo of my nephews and it was just too cute not to post. Here they are just having a great time pretending to be catching some waves. I could just eat them up! I miss them so much!

July's Batch of Referrals Are Official!

Well, it's official now. Here's this months referral notice:
The CCAA has finished the placement of children for the families whose adoption application documents were registered with our office before January 25, 2006.

This is a 5-day referral month (Jan. 21 - 25, 2006). Only 170 days worth of referrals to go... Let's keep 'em coming... At current pace, I think we're looking at the latter part of 2010 for our referral.

I Have A New Idol

At the age of 41, Dara Torres has just made her 5th Olympics. As a fellow competitive swimmer I am astounded at the fact that she's still as fast as she is - even after having a child. She won the 50m and 100m Freestyle - my events!! Something to aspire to, I guess. As soon as my shoulder gets better, I'm going to have to hit the pool again. Seems like age just isn't what it used to be. Thank g-d!! In case you're wondering - I'm 21 and holding... I'll never tell!

Happy 4th of July and Rumors

Well another 4th of July parade gone by and still no daughter to participate in it. Last night my sister and I were reminiscing over the days of when our parents used to help us decorate our bikes with red, white and blue crape paper and we would go to our neighborhood picnic. It was always one of the highlights of the summer. Some day we'll get to do that with our daughter...

Rumor mills are buzzing and referrals should be coming out soon. Maybe January 25th is going to be the cut-off. 5-day referral batch. We shall see. Coming soon will be the dates of when the Chinese New Year was and that batch should hypothetically seem like a huge batch because no files were logged in during it. Right now it's looking like the end of 2010 or beginning of 2011 for us to receive our referrals. Kind of depressing since when we started the whole process it was going to be a 12-month wait - not 5 years!! They say, all good things come to those who wait. I certainly hope it's true!!

The Operation Was A Success!

Today Robert went in for his hernia operation - he had a laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair. He didn't sleep too well last night - he was a bit nervous about today. His doctor said that everything went well. His doctor even gave him a video of the operation. Weird, yes! That's my hubby though! He had to know what the operation looked like. Me - too grossed out to watch most of it. We got home from the hospital around 4 pm. He was a bit drugged up for a while, but he's beginning to finally get his head all cleared up and feel more like normal. Right now he's not in too much pain, just some oozing out from the incisions. His left leg is still a bit numb and he was a bit worried about it for a while, but it's just now started to get some feeling back in it. Yeah! He's going to have to take it easy for a few days, but he's going to be just fine. Here's a great shot of my poor baby! Everyone always looks smashing in their hospital gowns.

Testing the E-Mail method of Posting Into Our Blog

This is just a test to see if I can successfully e-mail into my blog - will the picture be included and where will it get placed in the post. What will be used, if anything, as the headline. Here goes nothing... The photo is one of many books in our future daughter's book collection - "Zen Shorts" which is a Caldecott Honor Book. It teaches Zen principles in a kid-friendly way that is easily understandable and relatable to them. Children are asked to view things from other points of view - a great lesson to be learned! The illustrations are wonderful watercolors that are just too sweet.

Note to others: It worked great!! Great way to circumvent the blogging problem when we eventually make it to China. I love it!!

How-To Directions:

1. Sign into your blog and then click on "Customize"
2. then, click on "Settings"
3. then, click on "e-mail"
4. you will see an address to the right of "Mail-to-blogger address". Use that e-mail address as your e-mail address to post messages onto your blog with. I think I filled in part of the e-mail address in the blank box?? Can't remember, though...
5. Your title of the blog post comes from the subject line in your e-mail address.
6. photos get placed at the top of the post and your e-mail message gets posted below them.
7. make sure that "publish e-mails immediately" is checked, otherwise your e-mails get saved as drafts, not posts.