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Happy Adoption Day to us!

August 4 was the 2 year anniversary of our Adoption Day!  We had dinner at a very authentic and incredibly delicious  Chinese restaurant, thank you Gold Mountain!  It was so good that we don't even want to go back to the 2 places that are only a couple miles from home. 

We started a tradition last year of taking a family photo for Adoption Day.   Here is this year's pic. 

It doesn't seem possible that it was only 2 years ago that we were in China meeting our baby girl and learning about the place and culture of her heritage.  

Easter

 Me & my girls Easter Morning

Easter Baskets!

Easter was a traditional day with church & family.  We were up early, I got the ham in the oven (I LOVE my new oven with the delay timer, it's such a luxury to stick your food in there, program it to start, and come home to the aroma of a roasting ham) then got the girls up and got them dressed.  After a quick breakfast the girls opened their Easter baskets.  We left for Sunday School and a special fun Easter activity.  We made pinatas and then had an Easter pinata to break.  The message I taught them is that there is a surprise inside the pinata but the best surprise ever was when the women went to the tomb but it was empty!  Our surprise is that JESUS LIVES!!  After church we came home & the girls had time to find the eggs the Easter Bunny had left all over the house before Gerry's famly got here for Easter dinner.  We had a wonderful afternoon with Grandpa & Grandma, Uncle Duane, Aunt Eileen, and Megan. 

I thought it was Wednesday all day...

I was planning to start doing Wordless Wednesday and missed it, it's one of those weeks again! 

 A rainy day to wear her new monkey rain poncho and pose by my new tulips!

Snuggling with HER new cat, Donut!

American Diabetes Association Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test

If I can get at least 1 person to take the risk test this post will be worth it. If I can get my friends to share it too, even more worth it!


American Diabetes Association Type 2 Diabetes Risk Test

Spring Break

We had a longer than usual Spring Break this year.  With a whole week and an extra day off we had lots of time for lots of fun. 

It started off with Grace's Spring music program at the end of the day Thursday.  The little guy in the picture in the suit is our neighbor, he informed us that he was looking very "dapper" in his suit that day! Dallas is always good for a laugh!

Grace had a zoo class on Sunday.   Lila and I wandered around a cold & breezy zoo while Gracie learned about beavers.  I didn't take any zoo pictures, we're there so often that I am at the point that I don't take the camera.  I did take a picture of the project Grace made.  I was really impressed by her beaver drawing and lodge building. 

Monday was an extra-fun mini vacation day for the famly at Coco Key waterpark!

 Our little Queen-of-the-Beach!

 

And the Splash Princess!

Gerry even had time to get busy on the shower and made a lot of progress.  The plumbing, electrical, and duct work are done.  We made a trip to Menard's to pick out the vanity, tile, and flooring!  We can see enough progress that we are all getting very excited to have this big project DONE!!

Helping Daddy hammer those screws in...

Building an airplane from construction scraps.  I laughed when she was doing this because of the memories it brought back.  I was in first grade, just like Grace, when my parents started the major remodel of our family farm house.  I used to take scraps of wood and nails and nail them together into many creations.  I guess she gets it from me.  ;-)

Too good to not share

I joined Weight Watchers in February.  Their website has lots of wonderful new recipes that I am trying but this one I had to share!  Cordon Bleu is one of Gerry & my favorites this version is much lower calorie than the frozen ones at the grocery store. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu

1 pound(s) uncooked boneless, skinless chicken breast, four 4-oz pieces

1/2 tsp black pepper, freshly ground, divided


1/4 tsp table salt


1 oz Casa Italia Prosciutto, or other brand, very thinly sliced


2 oz low-fat Swiss cheese, or Jarlsberg, thinly sliced


1/3 cup(s) dried bread crumbs, plain-variety


1/3 cup(s) parsley, fresh, minced


2 Tbsp all-purpose flour


2 large egg white(s)


2 spray(s) cooking spray


1/2 Tbsp unsalted butter


1/2 Tbsp olive oil


Place chicken between two sheets of wax paper; using a rolling pin, pound chicken to 1/4-inch thickness.

Rub chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each pepper and salt. Evenly divide prosciutto and cheese over chicken; fold chicken in half to cover prosciutto and cheese and press down to hold shape.

In a shallow bowl, combine bread crumbs, parsley and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place flour on a plate. In another shallow bowl, whip egg whites until soft peaks form.

To coat chicken, dredge each piece of chicken in flour; turn to coat. Then dip each chicken breast in egg whites; turn to coat. Next, dredge chicken in bread crumb-mixture and press down to make sure all sides are covered. Repeat until all four chicken breasts are coated.

Coat a large skillet with cooking spray and set over medium-high heat; add butter and oil. When they begin to shimmer (about 1 or 2 minutes), place chicken in a single layer in skillet; cook, flipping once, until nicely browned and chicken is completely cooked through, about 6 to 8 minutes. Serve immediately. Yields 1 chicken breast per serving.

I left out the butter, cooking spray, and flour because they seemed unncessary also the parsley because it had been in the frig too long and was in really sorry shape. I covered the skillet for the last 5 minutes of cooking to hold in the heat and cook the chicken completely through.  We really enjoyed this meal and hope you will too!  
 
I"m making their peanut butter dip next week when I host Bunko so will share that if it's a success. 

Truly surprising day to do nothing!

For the first time in what seems like months there was nowhere to GO on the to-do list.  After picking Lila up from school we had the luxury of going to the library to play and leisurely browse through books for me, books for her, books for Grace (ok, I guess I should have found something for Gerry too).  The girls are reading their new books since Gracie got home from school. 

We came home & I cleaned the bathroom but ran out of Scrubbing Bubbles about half-way though.  I decided that was a sign that I had done enough in there for today.  The bathroom had gotten to the point that walls needed to be cleaned, hairspray needed to be scrubbed off all the sufaces, the baseboards needed scrubbing, etc.  I looked around, thought, "ICK", and loaded everything out of there and got to work.  I'm pretty much done except for the absolutely worst part...the bathtub. 

Lila has been playing so nicely all day with her toys while I cleaned and took the time to sit down and do paperwork and computer work that I have been avoiding too.  I was sitting here balancing the checkbook when I heard this coming at me from the kitchen! 

It is still way too wet & muddy to ride outside.  We brought one of the trikes up from the basement yesterday & she has been driving in circles through the house! 

Look what I found!

Inside view, Lila told me her bed was the top, in the middle, by the window. 

Look what I found!

I found some photos today on Picasa of the orphanage. These are dated April 2007, just a month before Lila was born, left at the hospital, found, and brought to the SWI (Social Welfare Institute).  

Outside view of the SWI. 

Look what I found!

This is the nanny that cared for Lila. She & her husband live at the SWI.

Still wish I could find her

When we adopted Lila we were told about her 2 little friends, Bi Sha Sha and Bi Xiao Cai.  We found Sha Sha when her mother-to-be joined a Yahoo group for families adopting from Chongqing.  We have watched and waited through their adoption process to bring this special little lady home.  They are a wonderful family and we hope to get the 2 girls together soon. 

I still wish I could find information about the 3rd girl.  Bi Xiao Cai.  She was adopted before we adopted Lila.  They were all the same age and had been together at the orphange the whole time. 

Check out Sha Sha's (now Jenna) blog at http://www.beyondthehorizon-miller.blogspot.com/

HELP DIABETES RESEARCH FUNDING!

Congress is voting this week on a proposed budget that slashes funding for diabetes research and prevention programs.

In all, we're looking at roughly $100 billion in cuts to vital federal public health programs. These cuts will jeopardize research underway and undermine proven prevention programs. Given the magnitude of the diabetes epidemic, we need to make sure Congress knows these cuts are simply unacceptable.

https://donations.diabetes.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2082

There's no time to lose - your Member of Congress needs to hear from you! I already sent mine a letter - it just takes a minute:

Thank you for your support!

Reached her Goal

Especially proud of these two today!!

I got a call from Lila's special ed teacher today.  She has been working with Lila to make sure she is learning at the appropriate level and not being hindered by her lack of speech skills.  Holly said she has reached her goals for the year!  She will continue to work with her for the rest of the school year but on a very limited basis.  Lila continues to work on pronunciation and sentence structure with her speech language pathologist.  I think she's speaking more clearly and can see that others are understanding her speech much better too. 

Grace also had a great week at school.  The kids earn tickets for reaching their expectations.  When they earn 10 tickets they receive a little plastic bear paw and their name is included in the Friday morning announcements.  Grace earned her 9th bear paw for the year!  She only earned 6 in the whole Kindgergarten year.  She is such a responsible and dilligent little girl and so proud of herself to get these little awards!

Research China

China families, have you heard about this service? 


http://www.research-china.org/


I first heard of Brian Stuy from a fellow adoptive family while traveling to China in August 2009.  I finally contacted him Sunday.  Last night I received his response.  He is able to provide us with not only a picture of Lila's finding ad, he has an extra copy of the actual newspaper!  I got goosebumps when I read that last night.  We were given a very poor quality, blurry, grainy, photocopy with our adoption information so this is really an exciting find.   This will be the youngest picture we will have of Lila, possibly the first picture ever taken of her.  I will post the actual picture as soon as we receive it! 

No Cook Candy aka POOP!

Several friends have posted on FB this morning that they need ideas to keep the kids entertained during the blizzard.  I found this recipe on a blog a couple years ago.  While they were making it her little girl decided it looked like poop.  Thank you Kathleen! 


No Cook Candy


1/2 cup peanut butter

4 cups of powdered sugar

1 cup of cocoa

4 tbs milk

1 pinch salt

Mix everything together....MIX A LOT....you may need to add another tbs or so of milk. Take a small amount of the candy and roll in your palms to make balls.....then eat your fresh homemade POOP.

PS This was fun.  We made it earlier today, were silly & gross with it, laughed a lot!  This afternoon I was sick of it.  It doesn't taste very good, was really dry and really hard to make into balls.  I added another 1/2 cup of pb and a lot more milk.  It made a wonderful chocolate peanut butter frosting.  I made yellow cupcakes and will be spreading it on them soon!  I might chop some peanuts for topping too.  Enjoy!

Snowy Sunday

We are having a cozy Sunday afternoon at home. We did a gluey, cutting, glitter craft.   There are cookies in the EasyBake oven and  I just got done reading an update on http://www.beyondthehorizon-miller.blogspot.com/  They are currently in Guangzhou soon to be heading back to Michigan with their daughter.  She is 6 months older than Lila from the same small orphange in Bishan.  Sha Sha and Shi Shi (now Lila) were together with the same nanny and 1 other girl their age at the orphanage.  We hope to get them together and kep in touch by email & blog!  We are so happy that little Jenna has found a happy & loving home.  Lila was sitting on my lap this morning in church and I was so happy that she is in a home that will teach her about God and that Jenna now has that opportunity too. 

Oh yeah, I can't forget!  I put this on Facebook but have to share here too!  We were driving over to Gerry's parents yesterday and the WEENIE MOBILE got on the freeway behind us.  It passed us and I was able to get a pretty good picture as we exited...

It has been much too long!

Another picture slideshow by Smilebox I haven't posted for ages so here are some pictures to let you know what we have been up to.  I hope everyone is doing well & I promise to post more often!