I didn’t catch the Super Bowl yesterday, but did see this Google commercial this morning and just had to share. It is just so sweet. What commercials did you enjoy during the game last night?

I spend the bulk of my free time reading, but every once in a while get the scrapbooking bug and put aside my books for some  scrapping catch-up. This past week I’ve been working on photos from the last few months and had so much fun creating this digital scrapbook page below in which I chronicled time spent with my daughter reading Harry Potter. I thought all you readers out there would appreciate it!

I like to write on the pages I create and on the one above I wrote:

I was so excited when Leah showed interest in reading Harry Potter. Having already read the series, I knew that it would catch her imagination like nothing else. We’ve been enjoying our reading time together and have almost finished book two! I’m so happy to spend time with Leah discovering the magic of Harry.

I used to be a paper scrapper, but have completely moved over to the digital format. You can check out more of my scrapbooking pages here! Tell me, what do you like to do when you are not reading?

I’ve decided to do a little blog clean-up and give another Wordpress theme a go. Even though I have a new header on my blog above, I am just giving it a test run. I hope to have a brand new header (and spiffy looking blog) over the next few days. Stay tuned….

I’m back with part two of my question and answer session! It was really a lot of fun to work on both posts, although it took a lot more time and thinking then I thought it would. You guys ask some hard questions!

Ti from Book Chatter asked: Your youngest is still pretty young but do you believe that a love of reading can be cultivated? Or do you believe that you are born with it?

This may come as a shock to most, but I was NOT a reader growing up. My mother was a lifelong book lover and I even remember my older sister reading, but I had very little interest in the written word as a child. My love of reading didn’t come until I was an adult, starting with Stephen King and Ann Rice books. I realized pretty quickly that I was missing out on some good stuff and then began to read on a regular basis. For sure I don’t think I was born with a love of reading. I also don’t have many memories of my parents reading to me, although they both worked hard (mother worked at nights as a waitress and my father had odd hours as a policeman) so I don’t think reading to the kids was up on their priority list – feeding us was more important!

Since I have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mom and my husband is usually home by dinnertime, we have made it a priority to sit down with both of our girls at night to read to them.  My oldest daughter is now an independant reader and I’ve begun to see how much she enjoys sitting down with a book. Is it because she was born with a love of books or the endless hours I spent reading to her since she was a baby? I’m not sure, although there is one thing I can tell you - don’t be like the woman from this post over at The Book Lady’s Blog. For sure she isn’t doing her son any favors.

Chris over at Bookarama asked: How long did the adoption of your little one take? Was there a lot of hoops to jump through?

Currently the wait to adopt from China is REALLY long. Right now from when you receive a log-in-date (i.e. when you paperwork is submitted to the Chinese government) you will have to wait approximately three years to receive a referral. Add that to the fact that it takes about six months or so for your agency to prepare the documents to go to China and you are talking about a very long wait. This time-line fluctuates every few years and in the past there have been families that have received their referrals in a matter of months.

The adoption of my daughter was a little different. Sometimes the Chinese government will expedite a family if one or both of the parents are of Chinese decent. So, when we submitted our dossier to China we asked if we could be expedited since my husband was born and raised in Hong Kong. What that meant was that our total wait time was only a year and a half, which by today’s standards was super fast.  

As far as hoops are concerned, everyone has to submit the exact same dossier – which means we both had to get fingerprinted twice (first on the local, then on the federal level), both of us had to get physicals and we needed to fill out what seemed like endless amounts of paperwork, all of which had to be notarized. It was a logistical nightmare, but the end result was well worth it! 

This next question is from Staci of Life in the Thumb: What are you looking forward to the most at BEA?

I’m really looking forward to a couple things. First, I can’t wait to meet all the bloggers who will be there. It will be so nice to actually shake hands with some of the women I’ve been chatting on-line with for the last few years. If they are anything like Book Club Girl, who I was able to meet for lunch the other day, then I am going to have a lot of fun!

I’m also looking forward to participating in the blogger panel. If you had told me a few months ago that I would be speaking at a major book publishing conference, I would have called you crazy. Now I’m just excited. If you can’t be at BEA but would still like to listen to the panel, then just call into Blog TalkRadio at 347-945-6149 on Saturday, May 30th at 2pm EST to listen to all of us live!

Lastly I really, really want to meet Shannon Hale. I just love Shannon’s books and can’t wait to actually meet her and hopefully get her newest adult novel The Actor and the Housewife signed!

Lastly, this Jersey girl asked: Despite being a jersey girl, can you pump your own gasoline?

Well Natalie, I was born and raised here in New Jersey, so am completely spoiled by the fact that I’m not allowed to pump my own gas here in the Garden State. Which means the last time I had to pump my own gas was on a long car ride when I helped my girlfriend move down to Florida to start college. It’s been many years since then, so NO, I don’t actually know how to pump my own gas! How about you?

Thanks so much everyone for leaving such interesting questions on my last post! I’m going to answer the first six questions today and the other questions on a separate post. Here goes…

The first question came from Dawn over at She is Too Fond of Books. Dawn asked: I’d love to hear a little about your daughter’s adoption. Did you go to China? How old was she when she came into your family? Have you read Marian Henley’s THE SHINIEST JEWEL about her international adoption experience?

In July of 2007, I got on a plane along with my husband Joe and daughter Leah (who is our biological child) and headed to China to adopt a little girl. Her name was Yi Mei and she lived in the southwestern province of Guangxi. She was 9 months old. She had spent the first four months of her life in an orphanage and then lived with a foster family for her remaining time in China.

Unlike Korea, the Chinese government requires you to travel to China to finalize the adoption of a Chinese baby. Six weeks prior, we had received a referral for a little girl through our adoption agency. Along with medical records and two photographs, we were given two days to decide whether or not we would except the referral. Once we did, it took another couple weeks to receive travel approval and to find out when our appointment at the US consulate (where the adoption is finalized) in Guangzhou would be.

Here is one of the referral photos we received. How could you say no to that face!! 

Funny story – we received a photo of Yi Mei in early June of 2007. Knowing that we would have to travel to China sometime late July/early August, I felt pretty confident that I would be home to receive the highly anticipated Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on July 21st. I even special ordered it to be delivered to my home that day. I figured it would give me plenty of reading material while on the long flight to China. Guess when we left for China? July 20th. I kid you not.

Maya Yi Mei is now a happy, beautiful 2 1/2 year old and we feel so blessed to have her.  

Yes Dawn, I did read The Shiniest Jewel and really enjoyed it. You can see my review from last year here.

Oh, and even though my husband claims that I snore, I think he’s lying…

Softdrink over at Fizzy Thoughts asked this one: Traveling? I didn’t know you liked to travel. So….where all have you traveled? If you could go one place you have never been, where would it be? And if you could return to one place you have visited, which would you choose?

Hmmm, great question! Yes, I absolutely love to travel! If I had endless amounts of cash I’d be on one plane after another seeing the world! Where are some great places I’ve been? Well, I’ve visited my sister three times in Hawaii (in fact, the first time I ever flew with my daughter Leah was when she was six months old on a ten hour flight from NJ to Honolulu). I’ve been to Florida numerous times, San Francisco, San Diego and Palm Desert years ago. Traveled twice to Denver and once to Vail for work. Even stayed at The Peabody in Memphis (you know, where the ducks swim in the lobby fountain)! Have been to Montreal a bunch of times, Toronto and Quebec City. Went to Cancun for spring break when I was eighteen and got to visit Chichen Itza which was cool. Even spent some time out by the pool in Jamaica a few years ago. Obviously mainland China, but also took a few trips to Hong Kong to visit family. Hong Kong is where my husband grew up.

One glaring omission to my list of travels is Europe. I’ve always wanted to go, but have yet had the chance. So to answer you question of where I would like to go where I’ve never been, then I’d probably have to say Paris. You know, just because it’s PARIS!! Where would I go back? Actually I’ve vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard twice (last time about six years ago) and would LOVE to visit again. It’s such a beautiful and unique island.

Booking Mama Julie asked a hard one: How has being a mother changed your life the most?

Julie, I have to say that you have me pretty stumped. I came up with a response, typed it all up neatly and then promptly DELETED it because it just didn’t feel right. To be honest, I don’t really know how motherhood has changed my life in the most significant way. Made me more tired, sure. More satisfied, yes. Given me more heartburn, definitely. I don’t really remember what it was like NOT having kids. All I know is that I sure am glad to have them.

Jenn of Jenn’s Bookshelf also came up with a hard question: How has having cancer changed your outlook on life?

We all like to hear the standard answer to a question like that. You know, that it has made you appreciate the little things in life. Or maybe that you are able to have a better perspective on what is truly important. And these are true. Having cancer makes you look at things differently. But it also pisses you off. Two weeks before my routine mammogram, my mother died of cancer at Sloan Kettering in New York City. Which means I was pretty mad that she lost her battle with cancer, after having survived breast cancer for thirteen years and was even madder to find out that I had cancer too.

So now I find myself determined to kick this disease to the curb. How do I plan on doing this? Well, for starters, by joining the Army of Women as soon as I’m completely finished with my treatments. By reminding women to GET A MAMMOGRAM. By raising money for breast cancer. By doing what I can so that my daughters don’t get breast cancer.

So how’s my outlook? Pretty darn happy that I’m alive. Pretty damn mad that 1 in 8 women will have to go through what I have. To have bodies forever changed by cancer. To always wonder if it will come back. To have had to say the words “I have cancer.”

Kathy at Bermuda Onion and Trish from Hey Lady! asked kind of the same question: How do you manage to do so much – be a mom, read, blog, attend to your medical needs? How do you balance everything: reading, blogging, twittering and other online stuff withfamily, parenting, being with your husband, etc?

OK, here’s my confession. I balance everything with lots of HELP!! Let me explain. I’ve been a stay at home mom since Leah was born seven years ago. Up until last year, I took care of most things in the home. Cooked, cleaned, laundry, child-care, etc. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer last September and was getting ready for my first surgery, I knew I would not be able to physically keep up with all of the household duties AND take care of a two year old at home all day while my oldest was in elementary school. So that’s when we started getting HELP. We hired a cleaning lady to come in once every two weeks to clean the house. Then we hired a nanny five mornings a week to play with Maya while I got better. We even had people making us meals when I wasn’t feeling up to it. Between the three surgeries and all the chemotherapy, I’ve been lucky to have help along the way.

What does this mean? Well, when I was feeling lousy after a chemo treatment or surgery, it meant I could lay in bed to recuperate. When I feel better, it means that I have my mornings free to grab a coffee at a local shop, grocery shop by myself, have lunch with a friend or read a book. Add to the fact that Maya naps for about an hour and a half AFTER the nanny leaves means that I’ve got some free time on my hands. That plus I write most of my reviews after the kiddos go nighty-night. So you see, I can only juggle all this stuff since I am incredibly lucky to have lots of people around me helping out all the time.

Oh, a book related question! Amy from My Friend Amy asked: What one book have your read this year that you would recommend to everyone?

I just got done reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I haven’t written my review yet, but have to say this was one powerful, touching read that I think appeals on so many levels. I would highly recommend it.

I’ll be back in a few days to answer some more of your questions. Thanks for playing along!

I saw this fun post over at Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? where she let her readers ask questions which she answered in a separate post. As always, Trish has come up with a really interesting idea that I thought I would steal borrow from her.

So, do you have any burning questions for me? It could be about books, blogging (at one time I had three different blogs you know) or something a bit more personal. I’m happy to answer questions about my youngest daughter’s adoption from China, my cancer journey, epilepsy, my hobbies, the upcoming Book Expo America convention, traveling and my family. Ask away! I’ll answer as thoroughly as I can in a few days!