Jun

30

WakeUpWalMart.com

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Check out this site:   WakeUpWalMart.com :-(

I personally HATE Wal Mart and will go out of my way to go to another store. 

Why do I hate Wal Mart?  Companies like Wal Mart that get to the massive size that they are today need to become responsible for the effect they have on the world (economy, environment, etc…).  Wal Mart has become a Monster Machine and at some point has become greedy.  I need to work on my list of why I HATE Wal Mart.  I can tell you the first thing on my list is just getting there that’s a pain and it all starts there.

I’ll add more later.

Jun

29

Have a safe trip Lee, Sherrell and Mary Clare

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Our friends Lee & Sherrell are going to China today to get their new daughter Margaret Rose.  Lucky!!!  We are soooooooooo Jealous.  We hope they have a Great trip.  Here is a link to their Website if your intrested:

Margaret Rose 
(try this link for current Blankenship-Brown travel info) Orchid Child
Mary Clare

Jun

24

Go Fish

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IMG_7796Saturday Morgan had a Birthday party to go to at the Columbia Marionette Theater, the show was Jack and the Beanstalk or at least their variation of the Story.  We had a great time seeing friends that we haven’t seen in a while.  Notice in the picture that Morgan was dressed in one of her many princess outfits, she didn’t take the dress off until late that night.  Our girl loves being a princess.  After the party we went to Ma & Da’s house where Morgan’s Great Aunt Kathy was visiting.  Of course Morgan was the center of attention and charmed everyone.

Go Fish,  We taught Morgan to play Go Fish and she is quite the card player.  I lost every hand and Morgan won almost every hand.  I just love hearing her say “Go Fish”.

Sunday I decided that I was going to do some much needed work outside.  Little did I know that the temp got up to 98+ and the humidity was probably 80 – 90%.  All I could remember was walking out and thinking that the air was thick.  I probably worked in the yard for 2+ hours getting done things that I felt needed to be done.  When I got done It all hit me that I’m getting too old for this heat and humidity.  The 2+ hours that I worked outside basically sucked all the energy out of me for the rest of the day.  Becky and I figure I had a case of Heat Exhaustion or Heat Stroke and probably should have gone to the doctor, but being a guy and a Creighton I stuck it out and I feel reasonably ok now.  In the back of my mind I was thinking hey if I keep pushing it I could make it to my “Big Dummy” list.   My “Big Dummy” list is for people that push themselves and get in to trouble with their health.  I don’t think I ever made it to my list but I have family that have, so it’s in the genes.  If I didn’t make it to my list I came really close and I bet Becky would say that I made it.  I don’t think I’ll make that mistake again.  Just because I can doesn’t mean I should.

Oooo, as I was recovering the sky grew dark and we got marble sized hale.  No pictures I was too wiped out and Morgan was too intrested in holding the hale in her hand and asking “Why”.  I don’t think we had a good answer for her. 

Jun

20

New Page / Old Links

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Miss the old sites, so will I.  I had 100% flexibility with the old sites but they took a lot of work to add new content and maintain so the site remained current and interesting.  While we were waiting for Morgan I had Time, now we have a 3 year old and Time is a thing of the past.  I was forced to choose something that had some structure so I could concentrate on content and WordPress is what I settled on as the new platform.  Please bear with me while I struggle to learn to have constraints on our new website.  

I’ll keep these links up while I work on the new replacement pages in this BLog format for our site, just in case your feeling nostalgic:

Old Old Home Page – Link (HTML)
Old Home Page – Link (CSS)
Old Old Links Page – Link (HTML)
Old Links Page – Link (CSS)
Morgan’s Old Page – Link (HTML)
Isabelle’s Old Page – Link (CSS)

It turns out that the new pages where I was writing the code in HTML & CSS wasn’t as friendly with FireFox.  It looked fine to me in IE but there are the rebellious few that resist IE.  I feel “Resistance is Feudal” when it comes to IE and I rebel in other ways that I’m not willing to share in a public blog.

Jun

20

My Flower Girl

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* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 6526 *(Click on the picture above to get to Photo Album)

Don’t miss the Great photos of Morgan in our front yard.  They turned out even better than I had hoped.  Last weekend was Father’s day weekend and I’m a lucky Dad and I know it.  We had a good weekend of hanging out and playing.  We went and visited Nana and Pa Sunday since they were away for the last 2 weeks.  Morgan missed them and of course we had to see Ma & Da Tuesday because we hadn’t seen them in a while.  Luckily both Grandparents live close by.  Oh, there’s new photos in the Morgan Photo Collection as well.  Enjoy

I forgot to mention that Becky and Morgan went to the Picture People in the mall and had photos taken of Morgan in one of her Asian outfits for my Fathers Day Gift.  As always the child was BEAUTIFUL!!!  I’ll try scan them soon and post them on the web for all to see.  That was a Great Gift.

News: Looks like I’m going to make this page our new Home Page for our website.  I still have somethings to work out but that’s the direction I’m going.

McLaren strollerOooo, Monday Morgan and I broke down and purchased a McLaren stroller in the anticipation of going to China.  Hey, Morgan loves it because it’s Pink I love it because it’s lite, small and I can walk behind it without kicking it.  This stroller only weighs about 5 lbs and it’s pink, can you beat that?  Hear that China we’re getting ready…  Get ready for the Creightons in China again.

IU (Isabelle Update) – Still waiting for Isabelle we’re now on day 254.  To give you some idea of the difference between the adoption of Morgan vs. Isabelle we had Morgan in our arms by now in 2004.

Jun

15

The Morgan Creighton Photo Collection

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* WPG2 CANNOT LOCATE GALLERY2 ITEM ID 6558 *(Click on the picture above to get to Photo Album)

Introducing the Morgan Creighton Photo Collection.  As you can see Morgan has been a photo subject of ours since we adopted her.  That being said and since what ever Mom & Dad do is Cool right now Morgan has started taking pictures of her own. 

Please note that Morgan won’t take pictures with our old 2 Megapixel Canon camera.  Oh no she feels that her artistic ability will be limited, or so she says by crossing her arms and looking sternly at me while I try to convince her to trash the old inexpensive camera.  No, all these photos are shot with our 6 Megapixel Canon Digital Rebel SLR. 

The real reason I wanted Morgan to start taking pictures is because she LOVES leaves and will collect piles of leaves and gets mad at me when I tell her that they can not go in the house.  I thought what a great idea “let her take digital pictures of leaves“.  I figured “hey since they are Digital I can either ignore them or delete them“, but then I started looking at then and noticing that she really has taken some interesting photos as well as some of the best portraits of me. 

Hope you enjoy them.

Jun

11

Evening at “The Big MO”

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IMG_7638Our evening at “The Big MO” started out with leaving from work early to pick up the munchkin from Day Care.  Made a mad dash to Cromers to get popcorn and peanuts (Morgan feels that a movie just isn’t a movie with out popcorn).  We then went to Build a Bear and made Cody Maverick, the star of “Surfs Up”.  While at Build a Bear we were told that Cody needs a Cody shirt because you don’t want Cody to be Naked.  I pointed out that the picture of Cody on the shirt they wanted me to buy had Cody naked,  HA!  I Win, we didn’t buy the shirt.  Turns out Cody never wore a shirt in the movie either.  Then we made a mad dash to Wal Mart to get chicken fingers and other junk food.  Did I ever say “I HATE WAL MART”, well I do and that visit just re-enforced my opinion.  There was one person at the Deli counter, he didn’t look happy to be there and there was a line of people buying sliced meat for the month from the slowest employee in the building.  Anyway got our stuff and drove home pick-up Becky where she had prepared a cooler with enough snacks to feed a small country.  Becky’s belief is be prepared for everything.  I thought we were going on vacation, just kidding.  May not sound like it but Morgan and I had a really good time rushing around acquiring stuff for the Drive-In Movie experience.

Got in the van and had to get money, gas and ice.  We were in a hurry and skipped the gas (next time we won’t do that, we cut it close).  Finally we were on the road.  Morgan latched on to the Cody doll.  Becky and I were hoping that Cody might replace her stuffed puppy who was getting a little ragged.  Anyway we got to the theater in plenty of time.  Oooo the price is $6 for an adult and Morgan is FREE since she’s under 3 for a total of $12 for 2 movies.  Turns out that going to this Drive-In is quite an event.  There’s a really nice playground, ferris wheel and a train ride to entertain the kids before the movie starts.  Being South Carolina it was hot, no I mean HOT! and a bit muggy.  Oh there were also nats, but to see that smile on Morgan’s face I would do almost anything.  That kid did everything and had a blast.  We brought chairs but it was too hot and the bugs were driving us crazy so we watched the movie in the van.  Having the van was really nice since Morgan could stand and walk all over in the van.  Morgan curled up in Becky’s lap during the movie and we all had a good time.  So much so we may go back next weekend for another movie.  Surfs Up got 3 thumbs up from the Creighton Family.  Next time we’ll get more food from the snack bar.

Jun

7

I600A and Fingerprint renewal

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Got this from our Agency about renewing our I600A and Fingerprints:

I-171H is good for 18 months and your fingerprints are good for 15 months.  You do not need to get these forms authenticated, since they are not needed for the Chinese government.  They are needed for our government.

The USCIS posted updated fee information to their website the other day. The link to the PDF document is below.

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/FinalUSCISFeeSchedule052907.pdf

In this document the updated fees for filing the I600A and biometrics are noted and will go into effect July 30, 2007. USCIS is also providing a provision for one free renewal of the I600A if filed before the original I-171H expires.

The new information about the free extension for the I-600a is a tad bit confusing and we are trying to get clarification on it.  Our current understanding is that if a family’s I-171H has not expired prior to July 30, 2007; the family can apply after that date for a free extension.  You will still need to fill out the I-660a application and attach an updated homestudy, a note from their doctor, stating that you are still in good enough health to adopt a child and copies of any birth, marriage, or divorce decrees.  You will also need to submit a letter requesting the free extension.  You will need to wait until after July 30th in order to apply for the free extension.  If you allow your I-171H to expire, you will need to pay to renew it.