8 MONTHS TODAY - is this the half way point?!?

Wow - today is the 19th of February. We have now been logged in with China for our baby for 8 whole months. When we started the paperwork referrals were taking 8 months. Now all I can do is pray that we are at the half way point. My, how things change in a year.

I guess I should look on the bright side and think that gives me 8 more months to finish all the 'projects' around the house. But, really I don't need 8 more months. I've been stalling on getting the projects done since the wait was growing and I didn't want to be 'ready' with nothing to do. I could really have everything done in 3 months. 2 months if I left off the things that don't really need to be done. But, heck if they called tomorrow and said come to China now to pick up your daughter - I think all the projects would just go away. Who said the baby's room needs to be painted - the lovely dull grayish white primed walls would do just fine. But, since I know that's not going to happen the baby's room will get painted in lovely shades of pink and lavender. After all -- I've made it through the first 8 months - I can make it through the next 8 months. And spring should be right around the corner. Well maybe around the block. But, it's coming.

Yesterday was Chinese New Years. It's now the year of the pig. Of course that's the cute pink little ones with tiny tails. And the ones that squeak not snort.

I even got three beautiful Chinese New Year cards from my GWCA June buddies. I didn't even think about this until it was too late. But, really I didn't even know they made Chinese New Year cards. You would think with all the on-line shopping I do I would have seen them but no - I missed them. Oh well, there's always next year.

So Happy New Year and Happy Year of the Pig to everyone!!!!

The girl's bathroom - BEFORE

Ok - so we built the house and moved in the 2nd
week of September 2003. The builder made me promise not to paint anything for 18 months. That was a tough promise to make. But, I did. So that took us to March 2005 - and living with two large dogs and just nasty primer on the walls. Which by the way does not clean well and it's so pretty to look at - NOT. Then we had to have some drywall repairs. So in the late summer / early fall of 2005 we started painting. And we are still painting. We are over 2/3 done with the painting/redoing the rooms and the girl's bathroom was the next project on the list.








Here are the pictures of us prepping the room. Over the sink was just a large mirror - so we bought a recessed medicine cabinet to replace the mirror with. Well, once Sonny cut the hole for the new medicine cabinet we found this lovely pipe in the way. (actually it's a stink pipe to let air into the drain - don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about). So instead of ripping out tons of drywall, and the vanity and rerouting the pipe or changing the size of the pipe we decide that we'd recess the cabinet in as far as we could. Which was about half way. Thank goodness for 2 x 6 walls because this gave us the extra little bit of room that allowed this. We also bought a new light bar and new sink/counter top. Plus all new decor and paint. Including one of those cool rounded/bowed shower curtain rod that gives you 6 extra inches of 'elbow' room. So after cutting holes, removing all the 'old' stuff, patching walls, re patching walls and caulking we were ready to paint.

NEW BATHROOM!!!!!!

It's done!!! And I just love how cute it turned out. (Sonny said it's definitely a 'girly' bathroom.) I keep going in there and checking it out. I think it turned out so cute!!! Just the way I pictured it when I was planning it all out. And the dots (actually 'Wall-Pops' - from Lowe's) are just way too cool. And they really do make the walls pop with color. So what do you all think? (Oh, and by the way I was so excited on how great it turned out that I took 34 pictures - so if you need more views just let me know). And I took all the pictures without the bathroom door on so that I could get better shots. In fact I still need to paint

the door and have Sonny hang it. Hopefully this

week I can get it painted. I'm just going to paint the inside of the door the same aqua-y color as the walls and trim.

More features: On the side of the vanity I hung a duck towel ring with a little ducky fingertip towel on it - that way the girls will have their own towel bar at their height. And there's a duck two-step stool (with two little drawers) between the toilet and the vanity - so we are all set in the bathroom for little ones. Plus, the I bought the duck waste basket that went with the bathroom set and it's next to the tub with bath toys in it. It was too cute for trash - plus Thunder eats used tissues - yuck! So we have to have the real waste basket under the sink. And I bought a duck safety water spout cover - that has a built in bubble dispenser. So now I just need the toilet and vanity safely latches and I think we're all set. Oh, and I got a blow up duck baby bath tub that goes in the big tub. It's also got a safety feature in it to tell you if the waters too warm/hot.

January June Bug Secret Pal gift

Aren't these just the cutest little outfits. I just love them. They are from my June Bug Secret Pal. And she always makes my the prettiest cards. She's oh so talented. :)

Thanks again SP.
Sherry

New referral info - from February 1st, 2007

We're slowly making our way to the front of the line.
I'm still holding out hope for a referral in 2007.