Happy Halloween!

We only had about 20 trick-or-treaters tonight...we saw LOTS of Spidermans!

The kids who came by had literally shopping bags FULL of candy! (Lucky kids!)

I wore my very special "bat wig" as you can see. The little girls especially seem to dig this look...

Can't wait until I get to take my Lia out trick-or-treating someday. It will be a lot of fun. I see a Ladybug costume in that girl's future!

Friday Night - It's Mexican Food Time!

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!Friday night is the night we ALWAYS go out for Mexican. Steve got a little creative today and made me this lovely video to display our excitement. It totally cracks me up.

Survivor - CHINA!

Last night on "Survivor - China" the survivors had to unscramble a word puzzle. They were given the hint that it was "saying made famous by Confuscious". Of course, I immediately guessed this one (because it is my favorite, and I think it sums up my journey to Lia in so many ways!) Lo and behold, they solved the puzzle and it WAS this saying! Steve had me pause the TiVo so we could take a picture of it on the TV screen. A sign? Maybe. A reminder that this may seem like a very LOOONG journey at times, but will definitely be worth it at the end? Priceless.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Pics from the cabin

To see our pics from the cabin trip, please click HERE

Snores & S'mores in Store...

Tomorrow we are headed back up to our little cabin in the mountains for a long weekend. Aaaahh - to disconnect from cell phones and email for a few days. Hooray!

We went to this cabin back in June and it was wonderful. It sits right on a little stream, tucked back in the woods, and it is only 45 minutes from Denver! The cabin owner told us they received some snow up there last weekend, and there may be some more coming this Sunday.

I am totally psyched to fire up the wood burning stove, snuggle up in my fleece with Steve and the dogs and do NOTHING! Last night I went to the library and checked out four "chick lit" books which I can't wait to crack open. We will hit the DVD store on the way out of town to catch up on any movies we haven't seen the past few months. Marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers packed and ready for s'more making!

Steve is bringing his camera, so hopefully we will get some great pictures up there as well (I'm kind of hoping it DOES snow a little - it would be so pretty!) I'll check in with ya'll on Monday.

Go Rockies!

A friend of mine recorded this at last night's Rockies game - make sure you watch it all the way thru to the end...I love the way people in Colorado let up a cheer when they sing "from the mountains" in God Bless America (like it was written specifically for Rockies fans - lol!)

Ooooooo...Spooky!

This weekend Steve helped me decorate the house for Halloween. We put up some orange, red, and purple lights, as well as some "bat" lights in the upstairs windows. We also have blinking "eyes" in the living room window. We even hung a little "Casper" type ghost from the front porch. It looks really good! Since the neighborhood has tons of little kids, we didn't want it to be too scary, just really fun and festive.

Today the weather turned much cooler, so it finally started to feel like fall. We even got a little rain tonight, which was nice for a change. Steve has some frozen clam chowder from one of his favorite seafood restaurants in California. We warmed it up, along with some calamari from Whole Foods. With the rain and all, it ALMOST felt like we were living on the coast! Yum.

IA Families UNITE!

Please click HERE to find out how you can help!

Rocktober in Colorado

I survived the move of our office last week, and the bigger move of the hospital this past weekend. Thankfully everything went smoothly and 111 kiddos made it safely into their new hospital beds by Saturday night. But what a long day! (...week...month...year...etc.)

To describe my current state of being as "exhausted" would be an understatement.

The low number of baby referrals from China this month is also discouraging (grrr!). But I'm too tired to get worked up about it. Congrats to the folks who got referrals and will see their babies soon!

In other news, President Bush vetoed the Children's Health Bill today. I won't get into a political discussion here, except to say I am disappointed (once again) - but not surprised. This funding is crucial to hospitals like the one where I work - and the children and families we serve. We worked hard the last few weeks toward getting bi-partisan support so the bill would pass through both the Senate and the House. It will be interesting to see what kind of compromise they can come up with now.

And a final note - apparently over the course of the last few weeks when I was working non-stop the Colorado Rockies somehow made it into the playoffs. I'm not a huge baseball fan, and I usually just follow the ups and downs of our teams via the evening news reports...but good for them. This is the first time I've seen the Rockies make it this far since I've lived in Colorado! Denver's Mayor declared today "Purple Wednesday" and is now calling it the month of "Rocktober" ...so Happy Rocktober everybody!