Gross

I found this on the computer desk yesterday. Wonder what she (yes, it was 'she') was thinking labelling it instead of throwing it in the garbage.

'Deid' is obviously supposed to be 'Dead'

"Tonight we are ladies, not girls" ~ Lyndsey

Last night Heather and I took Lyndsey and Jade out for Ladies Night. We went for manicures at a shop run by Vietnamese people who were fascinated by Jade. Really, if she ever develops self esteem issues she will immediately be brought back to this store where she was a superstar! I felt like I was in a movie. I can't remember the name of it but the scene I felt I was in took place in a nail shop and the people were speaking in Vietnamese joking about the girl but were being really nice to her face. (Sweet Home Alabama maybe???) The woman who did my nails asked me 100 questions and then would yell to the others in Vietnamese. Strange to know someone is talking about you right in front of your face!

• Picking out our colours.

• This lady was the one who asked the questions about Jade. While she did my nails she told me she was going to give Jade a design on hers "for free".
  

• The end result.
  

After our pampering, we took the girls to a fancy schmancy Italian restaurant. It was dark and intimate. I'm sure the couples weren't too thrilled to see 2 young kids come in, but they were so well behaved and we were very proud. Lucky for us, the restaurant is changing owners and they were running on only a sample menu. Our meal cost less than our nails! We weren't expecting that at all! Lyndsey brought a birthday gift for Jade and, of course, it ended up on her head. I thought of the post I did about stuff on her head. Click here to read that post from 2 years ago.

It was so funny watching Jade and Lynds using utensils and picking up their glasses while trying not to ruin their nails. They were doing everything with their fingertips....it was pretty cute!

We had such a good time (without the boys, who ended up going out for dinner on their own. They paid a fortune at East Side Mario's!!) Lyndsey thinks we should do this every Friday night at 6.

Snail Sitting

While Emily is soaking up the sun in Florida Jade is taking care of her pet snail Daisy. Daisy has a habitat full of lusious green leaves that Jade has to keep wet by misting a couple of times a day with water. Daisy is usually hiding beneath one of the leaves but this morning she was in full view showing off her lovely, swirly shell.

PS. Jade does own more than one shirt! Funny how I seem to only take a picture of her when she's wearing this purple shirt.

Jade's 8th Birthday

Jadie Girl turned 8 yesterday. We celebrated with dinner and her choice of nachos and tacos. It was a good choice on her part because everybody loves nachos and tacos!

Grandma loves Mexican but doesn't have it too often because it's not Grandpa's favourite. He enjoyed it though and now she's hoping he'll become a fan.

Jade and Emily...besties!

Sometimes for birthday's I'll wrap up some money in foil and hide in between the layers. Jade's cake was loaded with loot! Emily said she didn't know she would leave our house rich.









This is why you invite your daughter's best friend to her party....to find out how many boyfriends she has!

Jade had a really good day. We brought cupcakes to school to share, she got to go swimming with the Brownies and, by far the most exciting part of her day, she got to get rid of her booster seat! In Ont. kids legally have to stay in a booster seat until they are 8 and she has been counting down the days. I drove her to school just so she could ride with the heated seats warming up her cute little butt!

Oh ya...Uh uh....

Jade's little chant when she is in this pose is "Oh ya...Uh uh"

And then a little add on depending on what the dance is about. This was Valentine's Day so she was chanting "Oh ya...Uh uh.....got some chocolate"

I'm pretty sure she is mimicking something she saw on TV....likely Zach and Cody....

Notice Jade wrapped up in Blankie. Yep, she still has her blanket that we gave her in China. It still goes on every trip with us and it is still very much her pride and joy. In fact, lately she has been calling it "he". She is so much in love with blankie she feels that "he" has real feelings. He doesn't like to be left on the floor, he loves it when she cuddles it under the blankets with her and he loves being fresh out of the laundry.

She says she will someday be giving him to her children.

Amazingly the darn thing hasn't got a hole in it or a worn out spot yet.

Chatterbox

I'm not sure what she was chatting about but apparently it was "this big"

Just Because...

...she's so darn cute all bundled up...

Fun and Excitement.

Jade had homework today. This does not happen very often. I can probably count on one hand the number of times she brought something home to do. Since she just ♥LOVES♥ homework she was overjoyed and got right to it as soon as she got home from school. The teacher gave them a math sheet and told them they could do it over a couple of days. The excitement of it all blew Jade away and the whole sheet is completed and put back in her backpack ready to take back to school tomorrow.


The entire time she was working on it her voice took on a tone of importance and maturity that I have not heard before. Jade loves to do workbooks and sheets I print off the computer but this was the REAL deal.

Celebrating 7 years!

On Tuesday we celebrated our 7th Gotcha/Forever family day. It is amazing to me that it has been that long already. We were in the restaurant at the Dolton Hotel in Changsha with 9 other families when we received Jade. Her orphange was the last to arrive so we were able to watch some of the other families rejoice in their daughters before ours arrived. The emotions were high and I was crying, in fact I was so caught up in what was going on I missed Jade's name being called and they gave her to Mike.

We like to celebrate our family day by having a special meal. We all have to agree on what it will be. My family loves my cooking sooooo much that they picked take out. Harvey's hamburgers was our very special Family Day meal. At least I didn't have to cook and the clean up was especially easy....

Jade and I baked whoopie pies for dessert.

The wait for Jade was long. There was a ton of paperwork, a ton of nosy intruding questions to be answered. 13 months of waiting from the time our file was logged in until our referral (which is about 2 years shorter than the current wait) but it was what we had to do to get our daughter and so we did it. I am thankful every day for her, for the fun child that she is, for the healthy child she is and even the inquisitive child she is!

( Look at that face!)

"If you smile on her, she will smile on you"

-from Jade's orphanage report, Sept 2001, age 6 months

Little Miss Christmas Spirit

It's hard not to be in the Christmas Spirit in our house. Jade has an overabundance of it! She sings Christmas songs morning til night, she makes cards morning til night, she asks 'how many days' morning til night!
She looks at our tree and touches the ornaments lovingly.
Whenever we hear the song "All I want for Christmas is YOU" she says to me "Mom, this song reminds you of me right? Because while I was still in China and all you wanted was me...right mom?" I told her that once....years ago and she still remembers it!

Today she's wearing her Santa hat to school. Yes, she has a shiner under her left eye. She fell on the ice at school, had a huge scrape on the side of her face which has disappeared but the shiner shines on!

Life....

Life goes on. It is really hard to believe how when someone dies it really doesn't take long before all that is left of them is memories. We have been taking our time emptying out dad's house because, thankfully, we live in the same city and can do that. Some of the items I thought we would never be able to sell have sold and the one item, his brand new truck, which I thought would sell fast, is now on consignment on a used car lot....grr.....

This week we sold the house.
The house Jeff and I grew up in.
The house my mother died in.
The house were all of our childhood memories are.
Dad's neighbour bought it so he can use it as a rental. He will be making a lot of changes, which he is excited about. He tells Jeff and I constantly that we have given him this blessing. I don't know what to feel sometimes. I am thrilled that with the housing market the way it is that this has happened so easily for us. It makes me sad that once that house is not ours anymore then that's that. I'm sure everyone goes through this, as all parents pass on. I know that what I'm feeling is typical but all the same it's heartbreaking and so....final.

I have not taken many pictures this month. I can't believe that November is half over!! It just can't be!!
On Friday night Karen and Ed came over for dinner. Mark was at a birthday party and Jade was being creative, until she pulled out the dominoes for us all to play. She likes to team up with Karen because they always win! Jade made herself this lovely tie which she had hanging in front of her face! Notice the calculator in front of her.....Mike had sooooooo many dominoes left that she pulled it out of the drawer for him so he could add up those dots easily!!

Jade made this lovely crown for her dad! It's full of jewels and hockey sticks!

Ed was the model for her beautiful creation!!! He's such a good sport!!

Way to Go Jade!

Jade earned 2 badges in gymnastics this session! It's so much fun to watch her swing like a monkey from the bars, tip toe and dip on the beam and do jumps, turns and twists on the trampoline. She's one flexible girl!!

Jade

This is how I found Jade on Saturday....with her whole head inside her candy bag!


On Sunday Jade and her friend Jessica, along with her mom and I went to see HSM 3. They were so cute....they stared at the screen with big smiles on their faces.

Brownies

Last night Jade was welcomed into the wonderful world of Brownies! She crawled through a cardboard box constructed and decorated into an oven and popped out an official Brownie. She made her promise to be kind and faithful to God and Canada. She will help her friends and be true to herself. She is such a sweet girl.

Curly Hair

Jade would love to have curly hair. She often tips her head sideways when she's looking in the mirror and gets soooo excited if there is even a hint of wave in her hair. Unfortunately for her that only happens when she's had a pony in her hair for hours and her super straight hair takes the shape until a brush brings it back to straightness. We put braids in her hair the other night before bed and when she woke up she had waves in her hair. Of course, her hair was super straight in a matter of hours but she left for school happy...and happiness is all that matters :)

What a Steal...

Jade's selling herself for $10 in the garage sale tomorrow!

Going once.....going twice....

*Just kidding*

She makes me laugh....

Last week Jade was helping me make some salads for Mark's bday bbq. She was chopping onions and had her first experience with crying while chopping onions. Last night she wanted to help me make the salad for supper and was chopping all the veggies. When it came time to cut the onions she left the table in search of something.....when she came back she had my sunglasses on and said, "There's NOOOOO way I'm going to cry from cutting those onions again!"

She's wearing her housecoat because she loves it and will wear it at any opportunity she can! She took off her wet bathing suit and put it on as soon as we got home yesterday!

Last night Jade was reading the "Flip Flap Body Book". She was reading the section on babies. She pronounced womb as "woom-ba". And then laughed at herself when I corrected her and said "I've been saying "woom-ba" my whole life and now you tell me!"

After she was done reading she told me that she had a Chinese Bellybutton because of her Chinese mom. She really does make me laugh.....

Week One Down...

Day camp is a huge hit for Jade. She's having a blast at the same day camp that I went to many, many years ago. She hops on the bus without a look back and is gone for the day. All the activity and fresh air is pooping her out and last night she had a m.a.j.o.r. meltdown. She was just so exhausted she could not function. A 2 hour nap helped tremendously and today she is the Jade we all know and love. *whew*


Mark did some work for Mike on Monday. He stickered the inventory and earned himself a few dollars for all his hard work! Mike was impressed with the job he did and how he worked without any complaining. One of his friends dared him to go 2 weeks without going to Daisy Mart (the variety store that has the majority of his money) and he is almost there. He says it's not as hard as he thought it would be. I'm hoping he will see how much money he's earned and saved in the last 2 weeks.

I wanted to take a movie of Jade singing but this is what she did when the camera came out! And she stopped singing too :(

Just had to share....

what makes Jade sad. I only go out with my friends once a month. I hope the teacher doesn't think I'm never home!

Thanks!

Thanks to all my family and friends who have told me that they will not spill the beans to Mike, Mark and Jade that they have read the blog! It would be a perfect world if the 3 of them begged me daily to take pictures of them to post, but since it's not a perfect world I appreciate you respecting my wishes.

Below is a picture of Mark, who is saying "Come on mom....I don't want the world to see me run through the sprinkler" I tried telling him that only 5 people read this blog but he didn't believe me.

Toonces doesn't care if he gets his picture taken! Heck, he'll even dress up for the occasion!

Jade is such a cute little penguin!