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SNOW!

We woke up at 6 am this morning to SNOW! This is a rare site in South Louisiana. The last time we had snow was on Christmas day 2004. Blaine was only 2 1/2 and didn't remember, so to say he was excited when he woke up this morning would be an understatement! We got between 3-4 inches, which was the most I have ever seen here (Joe and I lived in Iowa for 14 months, so we know what it is like to have ALOT of snow, but for South LA, this was huge).

Blaine baking Cookies at Maw Maw and Paw Paw's House

Tiger Stadium Honors the 769th

Aquarium of the Americas

Blaine didn't have school yesterday, so we went to the Aquarium in New Orleans with my dad, and these are the pictures he took. I will post my pictures later because I don't have time right now.

Disneyland!

Free Disney Tickers

22 Months!

22 months since LID of 11/13/06
OK, I have been getting a lot of questions lately about this adoption. I don't know when, or even if, it is ever going to happen. We let all of our paperwork expire (had to, our Social Worker wouldn't work with us while Joe was in Iraq) and now have to file under the Hague. According to China we are good to go, we are just waiting for our referral. Our wonderful country doesn't think that is good enough anymore, and the new rules are leaving thousands of China adopters in limbo. I only hope that the USCIS (or whoever it is now), will get their crap together soon, or we may have to abandon our dreams after 3 years and start over.

On a much happier note, my friend Nancy and her husband Brent, just gave birth to their third bouncing baby boy, named Brody John Acaldo, my cousin Denise and her husband Pedro, just adopted their first child, a baby boy, which they named Rafael, and my friend Tiffany and her husband, just gave birth to their second daughter, whom they named Gabrielle. Congrats guys! We are so happy for all of you.

Karate Konection

In August, Blaine started taking Karate (Tang Soo Doo, I think) at Karate Konection here in town. He loves it!

GUSTAV

OK, that was one nasty hurricane. We lost power around mid-morning on Monday September 1st, and it didn't come back on until Friday, September 5th at around noon. It was hot and miserable, so on the following morning Joe, Blaine and I packed up the Jeep and the truck and took a trip to TX to see the family and gather supplies for what we were being told could be 3-4 weeks with no power. My sister and her friend stayed at our house to keep an eye on it (she didn't have power either). We spent all day on Thursday, Sept. 4th buying a generator, fans, gas, food and other supplies, and a Wii fit (I finally found one, thank you TX)and on our way home the next day, just as we were getting out of the car in Beaumont TX to buy a window AC, my sister called to say our power had come back on. YEA!!!!!!! I didn't believe her at first, and made her swear on our mother's life that it was true. After calling my home phone and hearing my voice on the answering machine, I finally decided that she was indeed telling the truth. We decided to keep the generator because IKE was already brewing in the Caribbean and was expected to come into the Gulf soon. Good thing, because a week later we lost power again because of IKE, but thankfully this power outage only lasted 12 hrs instead of 5 days.
Joe is in the Louisiana National Guard and should have been called up, but he was still on leave since coming home from Iraq. His entire unit got called up but not him. He had more leave saved up from the rest of his unit because it was his second tour of duty in Iraq (his first was served in 2003 with the Army Reserves in Conway AR)
As you can see from the pictures, we didn't have any structural damage, we just had a huge mess to clean up. Some of our neighbors weren't so lucky. Some had roof damage, and some had trees in their homes, but the good news is that all were OK, and most of our neighborhoods damage has already been repaired. Glad it's over!

Getting ready for GUSTAV

OK, see this tree on the side of our house? No, not that one, the one behind it that you can't see very well, closer to the house? Trust me it is there, and it is a good size too. Our neighbors puny tree is kind of hiding it. Joe and some neighbors had to cut it down during the storm because it was coming out of the ground and threatening to take out gas meter with it. Can you say BOOM!? Thank God we noticed it in time, and were able to chop it down before that happened (actually, I was the brave soul who ventured outside in the middle of the hurricane to chek out what was making so much noise. Joe was busy sleeping)

All boarded up and waiting for the storm.

First day of Kindergarten

Blaine's first day of kindergarten was on August 7, 2008. He is at the same school he has been at for the last two years, so it was really no big deal. Blaine is loving kindergarten, and even enjoys his nightly homework assignments (I don't know about you guys, but I don't remember having homework in kindergarten). I think his favorite thing is being able to check out books from the school library (they were not allowed to do that in Pre-K) He spent so much time his first trip to the library trying to find the perfect book, that he didn't get a chance to check one out. On his second trip, the following week, he waisted no time picking up a disgusting book on spiders.

21 Months

We have now been logged in with the CCAA for 21 months. Our agency has stated that they expect referals to speed up after the Olympics are over, and into 2009. I hope they are right.

Brothers and Cousins

Barnett Brothers, Joe, Treavor, Mike, and Eric

Cousins

Joseph Barnett, Katie Barnett, Allie Barnett, Audrey Barnett, Emily Barnett, Koda Barnett and Blaine Barnett waiting for their ice cream tour at Bluebell Creameries (and their free samples)

Houston, We have a problem

Landing the Space Shuttle (he crashed)


Allie, Joe and Blaine got to take a picture with actual Storm Troopers who were visiting NASA to promote their new movie Clone Wars

Allie and Blaine in the cockpit of a Space Shuttle

Blaine and Allie watching a little TV before it is time for bed. They were watching a Disney DVD vacation planning video and were talking about all of the rides they had been on and what there favorites were. It was so sweet to hear them talking together. Blaine and Allie are only 10 days apart and they always get along so well. I wished they lived closer to eachother because they share such a sweet bond.

Katie Beth and Uncle Joey

He may not be that good at conventional sports, but Blaine is the WII sports champion of the world!

Recently we made a trip to TX to visit Joe's family, and Blaine got to spend time with all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins. We visited NASA and the Bluebell Creameries, and celebrated our neice Katie Beth's 2nd birthday. We had a great time, and we can't wait to see everyone again for Thanksgiving.

No Regular G. I. Joe

There were a couple of articles in the latest issue of 225 Magazine and on their website about Joe. The links are below:
G.I. Joe and
No Regular Joe

Disney

Disney was a blast! We didn't take a lot of pictures because we have been there so many times. I did take some of our Character Diner at the Liberty Tree Tavern (highly recomended) and a few others here and there. We had Hibachi in Japan at Epcot this time around. That was new for us, and Blaine loved it. We like to try lots of different dining experiences when we go, because there are so many. It was really, really, really hot, like here, but here we don't spend all day outside here because it is so hot. Up next will be pictures from our trip to TX to visit the Barnett side of the family (really hot there too). That was a lot of fun as well! Tomorrow is Blaine's first day of Kindergarten. I think I am going to go and cry now!

Our old friend the Governor of Louisiana

The governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, is trying to talk to Blaine and he is hiding. The governor wanted to have his picture taken with Blaine but Blaine refused to have his picture taken. All he wanted was his daddy.

Joe with with Blaine and I and members of his soccer team. One of my very best friends from early childhood, Nancy, and her husband, Brent, who got Joe involved in soccer in the first place (in the black)

Blaine really happy to see his daddy, FINALLY!!!

Governor Bobby Jindal, General, General, Mayor of Baton Rouge, and Les Miles (LSU coach for those of you out of state)

The plane is here, the plane is here, and 30 minutes early!

Thank you Norbert for all of the wonderful pictures!

News

Story in the Advocate that talks about Blaine on the front page and

Joe getting off of the plane during the evening news cast on WAFB

WELCOME HOME!!!!!!!!!

He's finally home. Lots more to follow, but I wanted to let friends and family know that Joe has made it home safely, and Blaine and I are ecstatic. It was such an amazing day! I have so much to share, including pictures, but I am drained. I will say that Blaine had a long conversation with the Governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal, and Blaine was interviewed by some newspaper. BIG day for him, but he was most excited to see his daddy again! Oh, a bunch of guys from Joe's soccer team showed up and they gave him a USA soccer jersey with his name on the back, and they also got some great photos that I hope to share later. Thanks you guys!

20 months since LID!

Tomorrow will mark 20 months since our LID of 11-13-06. Below is our current prediction from the China Adoption Forecast site. I hope I am still alive by then.

Our prediction for LID 2006-11-13
China has 292 days of dossiers to be processed before they get to your dossier. China currently processes about 6 days of dossiers each month.

Our best guess: 2012-09-17

Since China generally sends out referrals in a batch about once per month, your referral date could easily vary +/- one month depending on whether you just get included or just get missed in a particular batch.

Monday!

La. Guard unit due to return to BR
Advocate staff report
Published: Jul 11, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

About 175 members of the Louisiana National Guard's 769th Engineer Battalion are set to return to Baton Rouge on Monday after a year's deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, Guard officials announced Thursday.
The soldiers are part of the battalion's Headquarters Support and Forward Support companies.

During the deployment in Iraq the unit served as a headquarters for other engineering units that were assigned to support various missions including general engineering operations, force protection improvements and maneuver enhancements to coalition forces.

The soldiers are scheduled to arrive at Louisiana Aircraft at Baton Rouge Metro Airport between 6 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday.

Party Pictures