Thank you Sherri, Todd, and Sam...

Yesterday I came home and found this unexpected (but much appreciated) package in my mailbox from Sherri, Todd, and Sam...a thank you gift for organizing last Saturday's get together (and goodie bag)...

Some of the wonderful goodies just wouldn't photograph well, such as the two red bracelets (one saying Wealth with the Chinese symbol, the other saying Happiness with the Chinese symbol), two keychains (one the Chinese symbol for Friendship, the other Chinese symbol for Happiness), these magnets for the fridge with pictures of Asian women, a red thread thing (that I will use as a bookmark, sorry Sherri if that's not what it's supposed to be used for), and then these amazing other goodies:

a ladybug magnet Sherri made (here it is proudly displayed on our fridge):


and this adorable shorts outfit (I just know Chynna will look amazing in this outfit):


Thank you again for thinking of us!! We so appreciate all the goodies!!

What amazing friends we have met through this adoption process so far, we are so very blessed!!

What is hanging from my rear view mirror?

Susan had this great idea to find out what people have hanging from their rear view mirrors (it was a topic of conversation at her breakfast table with her husband)...so I decided to play along...

I know you all will be shocked to find out what is hanging from my rear view mirror...


it's a FROG!! It was an air freshener, but it's lost the scent, but still it hangs there, it's just too cute to remove...

So what's hanging from yours??

Wacky Wed., what kind of carnival ride are you?

You Are a Ferris Wheel

Deep down, you are a fun, whimsical, and easygoing person. You often enjoy life for what it is, and the littlest changes in course can be quite thrilling. In relationships, people tend to feel what you feel. It can be liberating at first... But after a while, the people closest to you end up feeling a little trapped. Your life has perfectly normal cycles of ups and downs. However, you can't help but sometimes feel that you're missing out on the most exciting aspects of life. You only are happy when you're experiencing the highest of highs. Your low points just make you feel depressed, restless, and bored. At your best, you feel on top of the world with a great sense of perspective. You believe that anything is possible, and that you are happily looking down on everyone else. At your worst, you feel like your life is going in circles. You often feel like you're not going anywhere. This is sometimes psychologically disorienting. And sometimes it brings on a sense of hopelessness.

What Carnival Ride Are You?

Bibs from swap, and Saturday goodies....

Yesterday I came home and had two packages in the mail (yeah, they weren't bills)... they were bibs from the bib swap I organized...

First I got these amazing bibs from Holly (Chynna does have friends in N.C.)...




and the others were from Laura and her daughter Annslee (I'm sure you're right, Chynna will be a diva in training)...



Thank you ladies....I can't wait to see Chynna sporting these adorable bibs...

Then you all asked to see the loot from Saturday's shopping trip to Carters...I got all these outfits for Chynna for $50, yup that's all...isn't Carters great???







Have a great Tuesday!!!

My Monday Soapbox rambling....

We interrupt the normal Monday funny for a soapbox rambling....

I can't help it, this goes beyond idiotic....



Yesterday morning when I finally got my big tushie out of bed (finally able to get some well needed sleep), my cell phone was ringing (odd for a Sunday)...it was my Mom wondering why my home phone kept ringing busy all morning....upon looking further into the situation I learned I have no dial tone, but instead I have a high pitched constant "beep" sound on all my phones....

I called the repair number listed on our bill (611) as I have the "New AT&T" (our phone carrier) on my cell phone and home phone, and learn that you can only 611 on a cell if it is a cell phone repair call (that would've been nice to know on our phone bill)....you only use 611 from your home phone (okay that makes no sense, calling in a repair from a broken phone that has no dial tone).....luckily my computer line is working so I look online and get the repair 800 number and call it....automated answering, and God forbid if there is another noise detected when it asks you to answer questions...anyway about 5-10 minutes later all the questions were answered for the stupid machine, and an "order ticket had been created that will remain open for 12 hours" (okay this was about 9:30 a.m. and there was no option to speak to a live person)....all day long I would check my phone and no change....

8:00 p.m. rolls around and still no working phones....so I call again and the darned machine says "an Order ticket has already been created, goodbye"....WTF?? So in order to get a live person I have to pretend I wanted to purchase a new product (like I would after this type of service, yeah right) and I get the sarcastic Becky....

Becky: Welcome to the New AT&T, how can I help you?
Me: Well my phone is not working and I was wondering if you could tell me when to expect it to be working again.
Becky: Ma'am you need to call repair.
Me: Yes I already did that and couldn't get a live person.
Becky: Okay, let me look at your account. It says here there is already an open repair ticket. Do you need me to set up a time for the tech to come out?
Me: No, since I already put in a ticket I assume I am already on the schedule for this to be fixed, hence the open repair ticket....
Becky: Oh no ma'am, we only send out a tech to repair things if you speak to us and request it.
Me: So calling in and reporting my phone not working doesn't do this?
Becky: No ma'am, it just makes a record for our files that you indicate your phones do not work.
Me: So you're telling me that if I didn't call and pretend I wanted to buy something from you guys, my open repair ticket would have closed without my problem being resolved?
Becky: yes ma'am. So would you like me to dispatch that tech?
Me: What do you think??? Of course.
Becky: Okay they will be out between 2-6 tomorrow. Thanks for using the New AT&T.

Technology....it just makes no sense.....

We had such a great time!!

Yesterday's shopping/luncheon was a huge success...everyone enjoyed the shopping at Carters bargains (retail therapy always a terrific thing)...and the excitement moved over to Amigos for lunch....I really enjoyed meeting everyone, it felt like we had known each other forever (and not just met a few hours prior)...we all just clicked....
Here's some pictures of the get together (I humbly apologize for any mis-naming)...

This is Angie, Baby Ali, and Karen:


and this is Alicia and her daughter Grace...


Gina and her daughter Avery:


Teresa and her daughter Baby Claire:


Ginnie, her hubby Jay, their daughter Ali, and Angie (with Baby Claire hiding in the background):


Ginnie, Susan, Angie, and the gang:


the China (and Taiwan) moms with their girls:


Ray and I:


Todd, Sherri, and Sam:


Wendy and her mom Wanda:


Kelly:


and last, but not least, Angie and her mom Brenda:


Thank you all who were able to attend and make it such a success....I can't wait til the next get together in late Sept/early Oct ...

The final countdown....

Today is the day of the shopping/lunch get together!!!

A few months ago when I went shopping at Carters I got some amazing deals, and posted about them one of my Yahoo groups. This caught the eye of Angie and Susan, and we started corresponding about it in the group. They asked me help coordinate a date we could get together (so we could finally meet in person) and shop and eat lunch. Other wonderful local ladies started showing interest in joining us, and our group began to grow.

Fast forward to today, our group of 3 has now grown to approximately 26 people (this includes waiting families and families home with their children)....I can't wait!! I do have the camera ready, so stay tuned (hopefully for those far and wide I will make you feel like you too are in attendance with the pictures)....

A new book added to Chynna library, and tomorrow get together

We are on the count down to the lunch/shopping get together I have been organizing and I can hardly wait.....some really great things are planned and some surprises are in store!! The manager over at Carters has been so great!! I will post pictures tomorrow evening of all the wonderful people I finally get to meet!!


Also, yesterday Chynna (courtesy of one of my BFF's, Mike) had another great book added to her library, "Frog in the Kitchen Sink" by Jim Post...I highly recommend it!!

Well have a great Friday ya'll!!

Middle Name Meme...

I was tagged by RMJ to do the Middle Name Meme.

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
4. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Ok, here it goes. My middle name is Suzann.

S My "s"leeping habits are getting worse and worse every night (don't know if I
am in training to be a mom, hence the short time for sleeping or something
else-- I'm just lucky to get 3 hrs sleep anymore--)...

U My name is quite "u"nique in that Dannye is my real name (not short for
anything), thus making me a unique individual....

Z I had never been to the "z"oo until this year (and it was great, can't wait
to share that experience with Chynna).

A I am currently an "A"unt to Adam, Katrina, JoJo, and Nicci and a
great "A"unt to Damion and Angeliena, and I love every minute of it.

N I have to remember directions by the "N"ever Eat Soggy Waffles, to
determine North, South, East, West (and have to hold my hand out
to see which hand makes the letter L to determine left from right
-- guess I am directionally impaird....)

N My fav time of the day is "n"ight...I just love the moonlight,
stars, and the lack of the Fla. humidity (for whatever that is worth)...


Okay, now it's your turn to play along, and since I have to tag 6 people to play (cuz 6 letters in Suzann)...I therefore tag Steffie, Crazy Lady, Tundrachica, Janet, Nikki,and Andrea.

Thanks for joining in!!

Sex Frog for sale....

A blonde goes to her local pet store in search of an exotic pet. As she looks about the store, she notices a box full of live frogs.

The sign says: "Sex Frogs! Only $20 each! Comes with complete instructions."

The girl excitedly looks around to see if anyone is watching her. Then she whispers softly to the man behind the counter, "I'll take one."

As the man packages the frog, he quietly says to her, "Just follow the instructions!"

The blonde nods, grabs the box, and is quickly on her way home.

As soon as she closes the door to her apartment, she opens the instructions and reads them very carefully. She does exactly what is specified:

1. Take a shower.
2. Splash on some nice perfume.
3. Slip into a very sexy nightie.
4. Crawl into bed and place the frog down beside you and allow the frog to do what he has been trained to do.

She then quickly gets into bed with the frog and - to her surprise - nothing happens! The blonde is very disappointed and quite upset at this point. She re-reads the instructions and notices at the bottom of the paper it says, "If you have any problems or questions, please call the pet store."

So, she calls the pet store. The man says, "I'll be right over." Within minutes, the man is ringing her doorbell. The blonde welcomes him in and says, "See, I've done everything according to the instructions. The frog just sits there."

The man, looking very concerned, picks up the frog, stares directly into its eyes, and sternly says:

"Listen to me! I'm only going to show you how to do this one more time!"

Wacky Wed, What Kind of Blogger are you?

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible.

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

My first bib from the bib swap....

Thank you Nancy!!! Yesterday in the mail I received the first bib from the bib swap I organized....I so love buying for others and love receiving presents in the mail in return....besides it gives me something else to focus on!!!

Monday laugh...the Wedding Night

As our anniversary was Saturday, this seemed appropriate...hehe


Mike was going to be married to Karen, so his father sat him down for a little chat. He said, "Mike, let me tell you something. On my wedding night in our honeymoon suite I took off my pants, handed them to your mother, and said, "Here - try these on" She did and said, 'These are too big I can't wear them." I replied, "Exactly I wear the pants in this family and I always will." Ever since that night we have never had any problems.

"Hmmm," said Mike. He thought that might be good thing to try.

On his honeymoon, Mike took off his pants and said to Karen, "Here try these on" She tried them on and said, "These are too large. They don't fit me." Mike said, "Exactly. I wear the pants in this family and I always will. I don't want you to ever forget that."

Then Karen took off her pants and handed them to Mike. She said, "Here, you try on mine." He did and said, "I can't get into your pants." Karen said, "Exactly. And if you don't change your smart ass attitude, you never will."

And they lived happily ever after

Thank you Secret Pal!!

Happy Anniversary to us!!

Today is our 6th wedding anniversary...seems like just yesterday when Ray proposed (Christmas morning '00), prior to which he had asked my dad for my hand in marriage, and apparently everyone in the family knew he was gonna do it except me, so once it happened, I was a little disappointed because when I called my family (and some of my friends) to tell them they already knew, oh well!!

The next 8 + months flew with all the wedding plans, prep, etc. and it was time to walk down the aisle with my "doot-doot" to the end where my prince (my yummy, my Ray) awaited my arrival.

In order to avoid glare from my glasses, I walked down the aisle blind as a bat, relying on daddy to get me there without falling flat on my face. I am happy to report no face plants that day!!

However to take my mind off my nerves, Dad leaned close to my ear and gave me his fatherly advice (which he tells me was the same thing he told my sister Katy)...."whatever you do, don't fart" (what??? that was the fatherly advice??? I couldn't help but laugh, and my mind was placed at ease....

Here Ray and I are lighting the unity candles (some behind the scene scoop: Ray is whispering ever so low how close I am to lighting it, I'm not kidding folks, sucky sight without my glasses)...newsflash: nothing caught fire, phew!! close one!!


Our reception was amazing...the ceremony and reception was held at the Golf and Country club dad worked at...

Although we had a few mishaps (the chicken was a little dry, the baked potatoes had nothing on them nor at the tables even though we even provided a huge thing of salsa, the DJ we hired sent a replacement to fill in for him) friends and family had a great time...I couldn't even eat a bite so I can't comment on the food nor our wedding cake (when Ray "fed" me I had to really force myself to swallow it, not because it tasted bad, but because of my nerves closing of my throat)...my nerves were still kicking, even well into the reception.

Then when we went to leave our reception for our honeymoon in Fontana Dam NC, it was raining... our car was all decorated, courtesy of my brother and cousin Chad...and we find out "houston we've got a problem"....when cousin Chad was trying to tie some balloons to our windshield wipers, apparently the wiper arm broke...we can't drive to NC with a broken wiper and especially in the rain. It was about 9:30 pm and here Ray and I are driving around on our wedding night trying to find an auto parts store to fix the broken wiper and time just kept slipping away...finally we find an Discount Auto, which was just closing, luckily I had my veil still on. I frantically told the manager who was trying to lock up what happened, and he reopened just for us, and even installed it for us (this was very much appreciated)...and we were off, to begin the rest of our lives together as a married couple.....

See sometimes fairy tales really do come true!!

Happy Friday!!

It is finally Friday, I'm free again, got my motor running for a wild weekend....sorry that song was stuck in my head (please forgive the awful sounds of what may be known as my singing)...I feel better now that it's not stuck in my head...

What wild things do I have planned this weekend, you ask?? Well, tomorrow is Ray and my 6th wedding anniversary (and our 8th year dating anniversary is the 22nd)...we have some wild things planned for it too, hehe...my brother purchased his first house, so for our anniversary, we are moving him into his house!! WooHoo!! Now that is romantic and fun!! hehe

Plus, next weekend I have arranged for a bloggy get together, and I have got to finalize the lunch reservations and get together a few things. This is gonna be so much fun, so far we have 14+ coming to shop at Carters, and 11 confirmed for lunch (some of the people shopping have young children so they aren't joining us for lunch). I really can't wait!! If you are in the area next weekend and want to join us, let me know, the more the merrier!!

Well I guess the exciting weekend isn't going to start until I "make the big bucks" (yeah right, hehe) so I better go to work!! Have a great weekend all!!

Chinese couple tried to name baby @

Quite an interesting story....



BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese couple tried to name their baby "@", claiming the character used in e-mail addresses echoed their love for the child, an official trying to whip the national language into line said on Thursday.

The unusual name stands out especially in Chinese, which has no alphabet and instead uses tens of thousands of multi-stroke characters to represent words.

"The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means 'love him'," the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.

While the "@" simple is familiar to Chinese e-mail users, they often use the English word "at" to sound it out -- which with a drawn out "T" sounds something like "ai ta", or "love him", to Mandarin speakers.

Li told a news conference on the state of the language that the name was an extreme example of people's increasingly adventurous approach to Chinese, as commercialisation and the Internet break down conventions.

Another couple tried to give their child a name that rendered into English sounds like "King Osrina."

Li did not say if officials accepted the "@" name. But earlier this year the government announced a ban on names using Arabic numerals, foreign languages and symbols that do not belong to Chinese minority languages.

Sixty million Chinese faced the problem that their names use ancient characters so obscure that computers cannot recognise them and even fluent speakers were left scratching their heads, said Li, according to a transcript of the briefing on the government Web site (www.gov.cn).

One of them was the former Premier Zhu Rongji, whose name had a rare "rong" character that gave newspaper editors headaches.

You get what you pay for...hehe

A man is driving down a deserted stretch of highway when he notices a sign out of the corner of his eye....It reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
10 MILES

He thinks this is a figment of his imagination and drives on without a second thought....Soon he sees another sign which reads:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
5 MILES

Suddenly he begins to realize that these signs are for real and drives past a third sign saying:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS
HOUSE OF PROSTITUTION
NEXT RIGHT

His curiosity gets the best of him and he pulls into the drive. On the far side of the parking lot is a stone building with a small sign next to the door reading:

SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS

He climbs the steps and rings the bell. The door is answered by a nun in a long black habit who asks, "What may we do for you my son?"

He answers, "I saw your signs along the highway and was interested in possibly doing business.... "

"Very well my son. Please follow me." He is led through many winding passages and is soon quite disoriented. The nun stops at a closed door and tells the man, "Please knock on this door."

He does so and another nun in a long habit, holding a tin cup answers the door... This nun instructs, "Please place $100 in the cup then go through the large wooden door at the end of the hallway."

He puts $100 in the cup, eagerly trots down the hall and slips through the door pulling it shut behind him. The door locks, and he finds himself back in the parking lot facing another sign:

GO IN PEACE.
YOU HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE SISTERS OF ST. FRANCIS. SERVES YOU RIGHT, YOU SINNER

Wacky Wednesday (what movie is your love life)

Your Love Life is Like Pretty Woman

"I want the fairy tale" You believe that love is truly blind, unpredictable, and surprising. Two very different people can easily find true love. At least, that is how it'll happen when you marry a gorgeous billionaire someday ;-) Your love style: Sensual and flirty Your Hollywood Ending Will Be: Surprisingly happy

What Movie Is Your Love Life Like?

No wonder this is one of my favs!! hehe

13 months and counting....

I can't believe it...we are 13 months closer our Chynna!! And in the review room, where all is quiet so far!! Hopefully we'll get out of review without a peep from the CCAA, at least that is our goal...so keep your fingers crossed for us...


Happy Tuesday all!!

Eat your veggies, a Monday funny

An exciting visit from my niece and her children

Today I came home from shopping for the bib swap to a wonderful surprise, my niece Katrina and my great nephew Damion (almost 3 yrs) and great niece Angeliena (19 months) came over for a visit, and a swim in our pool...they did great (wore me out as they both wanted "Aunt Dannye" to hold them, and play airplane, and jump off the ladder to my open waiting arms...definitely great exercise)...

Here's me getting Angeliena on the floating raft:



This girl has no fear of the water (or anything that I have seen so far, except strangers, and sometimes her Uncle Ray, hehe)...and her whole face lights up when she smiles...

Here's Damion being a big boy and floating by himself on the raft...



and here's Angeliena floating on the raft like a big girl, because her brother was doing it by himself (right before my heart stopped because she was trying to swim on her own...) but no worries, Aunt Dannye caught her before she even hit the water, quick reaction!!



Then they started to get sleepy (as was Aunt Dannye)...so it was time to go home, eat dinner and go to bed!!



We had a great time!!!