WooPigSuzy

School pictures 2011

2011-11-17T12:45:00.001-08:00

My school pictures were never this cute...

Life lessons

2011-11-06T20:49:00.000-08:00

Never give your child a Popsicle before a photo opportunity.

Always put the mustard and ketchup on the bun before you put the hot dog in. Especially if your child is a messy eater. If you forget, and put the condiments on the hot dog, turn the hot dog over so the condiments are completely surrounded by bread.

If you meet another princess wearing a Cinderella dress like you AND her name is Lydia, too, it may be the most magical thing that happens to you at Disney. If she's riding on the same bus & staying at the same hotel? Magic is the only possible explanation, isn't it?

Twinkle Toes

2011-10-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

Lydia misplaced one of her shoes last night. I looked high & low with a fair amount of urgency without locating it. Lydia was blissfully unconcerned.

This morning Gene asked if we'd found the shoe. I said no, but Lydia said, "I dreamed about where it is!"

Gene, "Well, where is it?"

Lydia, "I don't know. My eyes were closed."

Oops! I forgot about my blog

2011-10-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's not early onset dementia. I've just been busy. Why don't I do a bullet list (and please refrain from asking why I didn't do a bullet list, oh, six months ago, ok?)? The following won't necessarily be in chronological or alphabetical order:

After Lydia camped out on the upper deck with Gene last winter, I rewarded her with an ipod Touch. How did she repay me? By taking pictures, videoing , and recording just about everything. It's interesting to see the world from her perspective. Not all of it is flattering, though. Here's a sampling:
That photo of me at the sink isn't very flattering, is it? But it was accurate.

Gene wanted a house with a pool & a shop (he had a house with a shop but not pool & no good place to put one)
We looked at a house with neither, and we made an offer on it the same night
They counter offered. We countered their counter offer. They decided not to sell. I sent the gentleman a letter asking him to let us know if he ever reconsidered. Oh, and I included a family picture. He and his lovely wife reconsidered. We got an offer the day after we listed our house.
We moved over Memorial Day. The family who bought our old house moved in July. Guess who had the cooler temperatures for moving? It wasn't us. They had some misty rain part of the day, but blissful temps. We were in a sauna with the heat cranked up. I grumbled. A WHOLE LOT. Then I felt ashamed because God really had placed me in a very nice home, and I feel at peace here in a way that I never even realized I didn't at our old home.
Drew met the sweetest, cutest young woman named Sarah. We met her, went to Texas & met her family & we LOVE them all. Her family treated us to a Texas Rangers game on the 4th of July. On the way home, I called my SIL who'd asked me if I wanted to go to Jenny Craig again. I can't honestly say that I WANTED to go to Jenny Craig, but I didn't want to look like I looked in Lydia's picture above & I do WANT to be healthy. So, she and I went to buy Jenny Craig food right after I got back home.
Drew graduated, passed his licensure exam & got a job. Love that young man!
I've lost more than 20 pounds. WOOT! I still have a long way to go, but my resting heart rate (if I'm not watching the Rangers or Razorbacks) is in the 50's. After much trial & error, I can do week 4 of Couch to 5K on the treadmill. Last week I logged 6.5 miles (walking most of it) while I watched a Rangers game.
Lydia learned to swim without floaties. In my brother & SIL's pool. Because my new house has neither a pool nor a shop ; ) and I am ok with that! Did I mention that I live right around the corner from my brother?
I am taking some time off from teaching Sunday school for the little kids.
Lydia started preschool & turned 5.

There's bound to be a WHOLE lot more I've left out, but it's a start. I'll try to update more often. Catch you later!

Speechless

2011-03-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

This little blog o' mine. I'd like to let it shine. I really would. I just can't find much to share right now. I feel like I've completely lost my blogging mojo.

We had a fantastic February - snow, convertible weather, camp out on the deck weather. Good times. While today was as beautiful a day as you could ever ask for, you just never know what we'll be getting tomorrow or the next day for weather.

Regrets? I'm sorry I didn't buy the sled at Bass ProShop right before Christmas. Or order one after the first snow. Or the second. Sigh. And I sort of wish we lived closer to the church's fantastic sledding hill where all the fun kids went sledding & where the photographer who took Lydia's Christmas pictures was snapping pictures. And I wish I came up with fun ideas like making a Dalek snowman & was prepared for it BEFORE it snowed. Now, my pantry was WELL stocked for snow. I was just late to the party in the outdoor venue.

That's about it for right now. I'll be back. Eventually. I think.

What did you say?

2011-01-25T13:19:00.000-08:00

Lydia wanted to help prepare dinner last week, and as a four year old, there's not a whole lot that is safe for her to do. I opened a can of cream style corn and handed it to her to empty into the pot. She poured it in, looked at me, and said, "Is that throw up?" Sure, honey, we can that so we can have it any time we want. She's a trusting, soul, though because she ate it later and told me I was the best cook.

One night Lydia was being particularly exasperating as we tried to get ready for bed. At one point she must've even had enough of herself because she said, "My gosh, Lydia!"

Lydia got a Razorback cap for Christmas, and she was wearing it in the house. "Mommy! I really like my hat. It even has a mirror in it!"

Lydia's twisted lyrics: Some times we all have to relive our glory days, and Lydia is no exception. She still likes to sing the song from the Christmas play. "Behold that star, behold that star up yonder, behold that star. This is the star of Bethlehem. There was no room found in the EAR (inn)." Probably not. It was probably filled with your mother's & father's laughter.

Sing it, Lydia, sing it!

Where have I been?

2011-01-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

Sheesh. You'd think I'd been on vacation or something since my last post. Oh, I DID go on vacation, and I really did intend to blog about it. I even jotted down notes so I wouldn't forget to tell you all about it. And then? Well, it just didn't happen, did it? Guess what: it's going to happen right here, right now.

We left for New Orleans, a city I had no real desire to visit, right after church a few Sundays ago. As is so often the case about so many things (remember camping?), I was WRONG about New Orleans. Maybe not about ALL of New Orleans ALL the time, but certainly about the French Quarter when it is largely populated by Razorback fans for the Sugar Bowl.

On the way down, however, we spent the night in Jackson, Mississippi, where our vehicle was broken into. The brain trust took our house payment check, a bag with crayons, stickers, a point and shoot camera which had gone to China with us and my computer charger. Also missing in action was Lydia's pink, child-sized backpack containing her candy, a pair of gloves, and really, not much else. This pillar of the community and clearly all around great guy left our on the dash GPS so we could find our way out of Jackson.

Now, contrary to what you might think of New Orleans, we were largely unaccosted while there. Gene did get stopped by a man wearing a dark jacket with yellow letters and a cap looking a bit like an FBI agent. He claimed that Gene wasn't having enough fun, and that he'd have to give him a ticket from the Party Patrol. Not sure which Party, but Gene declined to join by refusing to purchase a ball cap.

High points from the trip: For ME? The very best part of our trip was the Audubon Aquarium. There are no words to do it justice so I will just encourage you to go for yourself and allow PLENTY of time. Maybe leave your small child at home if they aren't the sort to allow you to stare in awe or read what's written next to the exhibits. Oh, and be sure to stick your hand into the tank with the stingrays. They feel unlike anything you'll ever touch that's not a stingray. Don't worry, though, their stingers have been removed.
For the whole family: Ride in a mule drawn carriage. I hope you get the same gentleman we had as a cab driver. Oh, my goodness! He was so entertaining. Our mule was named Sugar Daddy. It makes me wish I was still naming dogs because I think the next one would have that name. Did you know that the "r" is silent in Burgundy if you're in the French Quarter? It's Buh GUN dee Street.

Not for the whole family: St. Louis Cathedral. Lydia could NOT stop wiggling, and the thief may have gotten away with her quiet, indoor/church voice, too. It was an all too brief visit to what should have been a very beautiful and peaceful house of God. Maybe she was too hyped up after dancing to the music in the street?

We walked all over the place, and it was cool enough without being too cold so that all the walking was great. Lydia wanted to ride a streetcar, and I was more than willing to give it a try. So, we climbed on to an almost empty one, and off we went. Then it stopped a few yards later. And we were off again. Then it stopped. Repeat, repeat, repeat. People got on, people got off. More got on than off, and before long it was very crowded. Lydia got increasingly wiggly, and while we hadn't gone far, we were getting into a crummy looking part of town. The first stop where there was a trolley going the other way, we hopped off of ours and onto the one heading back the direction from which we'd come. Not sure I feel the need to repeat that experience. Walking was more comfortable and faster.

Food: We ate it. I'm picky, and I have weird allergies so I had very tame dining experiences. Beignets were as adventurous as I got. Still, at the Superdome, you could, if you were so inclined, get crayfish pie. Or, for the low price of $9, you could have a baked potato. Oh,yes. You could. I took a picture of mine because I want to remember it:

I didn't even get to eat it all. Lydia ate THREE slices of a personal pan pizza, and then she started in on my spud. What can you say? She walked all over, had no snacks, and I'm sure she was quite hungry. The game could have gone better for Hog fans, but who knows, we may be in New Orleans again next year with a better outcome. I won't have any reservations about going back, though, and I may get there even earlier.

Finally, the Superdome seats 72968. More than half of those were Razorback fans. But out of all those seats & people, what do you think are the chances that the man sitting in front of me would be a doctor I worked with a 3 years ago? Crazy, I tell you, just crazy. It's sort of like when I went to see George W. speak and sat next to a girl from China whose name was Lydia.

The Perfect Birthday

2010-12-28T20:32:00.000-08:00

1. Get up earlier than you thought you would.
2. Take a shower & get ready to GO.
3. Renew your driver's license because it expires every 4 years on your birthday & this is the 4th year.
4. Take your son & daughter to eat with you at El Chico. Be sure to invite a fellow adoptive mom.
5. Allow the El Chico staff to bring you the free sopapilla, put a sombrero on your head & sing Happy, Happy Birthday, Happy, Happy Birthday, Happy, Happy Birthday from all of us to you, Ole!
6. Head out to Playtime Pizza to play black light miniature golf with two little girls who've NEVER held a putter.
7. Witness a motor vehicle accident. Thank God you weren't involved. Wonder how it could have happened without any apparent damage. Ask your son why he supposes the airbag didn't deploy.
8. Play miniature golf with 4 year old & 6 year old. Ok, watch. Try to avoid being hit by new miniature golfers (the golfers weren't miniature, the course was). Wonder how much "instruction" you can offer before you ruin the experience.
9. Watch you son & daughter in the indoor bumper cars. Record with your Flip so your spouse can watch later.
10. Go home for your daughter's nap.
11. Go to gymnastics.
12. Go to Chile's for dinner. Laugh at the really horrible service because it's NEVER been bad before. Wonder if your birthday molten chocolate cake will arrive before your NEXT birthday.
13. Go home with whole family.
14. Be thankful for the gift of a great day, and hope the rest of YOUR new year will be at least this good.
I LOVE my birthday. Did you hear the contented sigh?

Merry Christmas, ya'll!

2010-12-25T21:45:00.000-08:00

Christmas started off a bit slow for me this year. Given my tendency to procrastinate, that may not seem out of character. While I may wait until the last minute to buy gifts or send out presents, I am usually full of Christmas cheer from Thanksgiving onward.

At any rate, the Christmas lights finally set a fire under Suzy Scrooge and sent her on her way. Lydia and I put a REAL tree up on the front porch complete with zip tie ornament holders for the windy days. Well, really? What's more festive than zip ties? I'll tell you what else, too: I don't mind if the needles fall on the porch nearly as much as when they fall on the floor.

One night Gene picked Lydia up, and she leaned backward to lie in his arms. As he cradled her in his arms, she said, "I'm pretending to be Baby Jesus." Yesterday, she took an armrest cover off a recliner, put it on her head, and said, "Look! I'm Mary." So, she's been 2/3 of the essential Nativity scene players.

On Christmas Eve she announced to the table that she could speak Spanish. And proceeded to count to 3. In Chinese.

We baked cookies together at least 3 different times including a right before bed small batch of slice, roll, cut & bake gingerbread cookies for Santa's snack. I'm sure Santa appreciated how fresh those cookies were. I, on the other hand, have had to get a death grip on the perfectionist who pops out of me at weird moments like that. Santa's not going to hold back just because those cookies aren't "just so." Factor in Lydia's age, and I'm pretty sure he's not expecting Ace of Cakes bakery skills. And so, once again I had to tell the Martha in me to hush!

My baby girl made me so proud, too, when she managed to forgo mentioning a top secret photo shoot to her Daddy. Of course, said photo shoot nearly had the perfectionist pulling her own hair out again. Let's just say that Lydia gets increasingly wiggly as her discomfort/unfamiliarity with a situation increases. Sweet photographer has 3 young children, though, so he knows how it is, and he shot nearly 300(really fast, not sit there & pose) frames to get the 20ish really good ones he edited to print.

Oh!Ho, ho! You really need to know that Wii has a new version of Just Dance - it's Just Dance2. You'll want to run right out and buy it. You need to know, too, that you can go to the WiiShop & buy EVEN MORE SONGS!!! And how could you resist when they have Mambo #5 and Kung Fu Fighting? I couldn't, and if you can? You're a better person than I am. Probably a much better dancer, too. If you're laughing at my enthusiasm or the mental picture of me dancing, go right ahead. It IS pretty funny, but it's even more fun to dance not caring how ridiculous I look, not worrying about how I'll get off the dance floor if I split my pants, and not worrying (because we have a very strict no camera rule) that I'll end up on youtube or Funniest Home Videos.

Love you all! I'll try to add pictures (not of anyone dancing, weren't you listening?) later.

A day late

2010-11-29T18:21:00.000-08:00

Sorry I missed you guys last Sunday! So, this is like a 2 week Sunday Snapshot, which means I will ramble all over the place.

I have a new love. Oh, I've had a crush for a couple of years now. It was love at first sight, actually. I was utterly enthralled the moment I laid eyes on the iPhone. And now I have my very own!!! Hello, 2010.

Lydia has had us pretty entertained with funny things she's said & done:

Lydia: Mommy, are you sure? Me: Yes Lydia: Really sure? Me: Yes. Lydia: Are you positive? Me: Yes. Lydia: Seriously? At which point, all I could do was laugh.
Lydia Sunday morning getting ready for church: I don't WANT to wear my boots cause everyone will say I'm pretty!!! Umm, ok. I didn't realize that was a bad thing. & Later in the car: Mom! Mom! I woke up with a bad mood. Well, yes, yes you did.
She really, really didn't want to stay in her Sunday school class for the second hour when I was going to be attending the worship service. And would you believe the little Hog fan who couldn't be still for a picture (she's a movement blur & the background is perfect so it's not the camera moving) sat reasonably still for the first time ever through a whole church service?
At our house, the cardinal rule is that the last Coke is Mine/Mom's. Gene swiped a gulp of my Coke & a siren started going off. Lydia asked what it was, and I told her it was the alarm I had on my Coke for when Daddy stole a drink. I moved it over toward her & away from Gene. She reached out & touched it and another siren started to go off. You could tell by the expression of wonder on her face that she was starting to believe me, but I began to laugh and she said, "Uh-uh! That's a fire engine!" She's NEVER been gullible. Even as a little 10 month old, you couldn't really fool her.
Dinner consisted of black bean soup (and it is a WINNER!) tonight, and Lydia took one look in her bowl and yelled, "Black Olives!!!! I LOVE black olives!!!" She was almost as excited about the mushrooms on her pizza at lunch.

And now to tell on myself, I will confess a photographer snafu: I often take pictures upside down with my iPhone. I'd feel dumb about it, but I it never happens with my Canon Rebel...

After the best game of the season, Lydia managed to eat the biggest bowl of macaroni & cheese at El Chico. Here she is after she made a happy plate/bowl:

She's a hoot

2010-11-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

Tonight, my precious daughter had me in stitches. First she was trying on dress up clothes, and asked me, "What is this?" I replied, "It's a flapper dress from the Roaring 20's." She got dressed in the purple sequined dress with fringe around the bottom, I tossed the pink fuzzy boa around her neck and turned her loose. She started waving her arms up and down saying, "Flap, flap, flap!" Cuckoo might be more appropriate than flapper.

Our bed time story tonight was Fancy Nancy's Favorite Fancy Words read by Daddy while I braided her hair. We accidentally added a new word to the lexicon. Gene read monogram, but Lydia decided MOM-o-gram was a better word. Her new word was funny enough based on a mispronunciation, but then she proceeded to enunciate "xenophile" perfectly.

Don't eat the yellow snow

2010-10-31T12:52:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween, ya'll! Our town, the holiday fascists, dictated that trick or treating would happen last night. Now, why the town leaders felt they had the right to decide when I hand out candy on a holiday that isn't a state holiday is a mystery to me. Any way...

We made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch (ok, I didn't make it last year but I DID go twice the year before so I think we're still averaging one trip/year) on Friday. Cause I am nothing if not last minute. The little dog in the header? Not mine. Just happened to plop down close to that sign & I thought, "HEY! That'd be a cute header for my blog." This year, we actually took the hayride & picked the pumpkin from the patch instead of the pallets of pumpkins they have out front. Lydia found a squished pumpkin and was so sympathetic for it that I thought we were going to have to hold a memorial service for it. For REAL.
After we selected the perfect pumpkin, we had to settle for a shaved ice/snow cone. Up north, I hear, it is the custom to eat apple cider donuts. This has to be better than snow cones. Normally, Lydia goes for blue coconut flavored stuff, but the man in line in front of us had a yellow banana snow cone which swayed Lydia's decision. Personally, I'm against eating anything that combines yellow and snow.

Drew had a Halloween party last night, and so I took a few shots of Lydia and him in their costumes.

You're right. It's the same costume as last year. It mostly still fit, my sewing machine is in storage, and I thought it was awfully cute last year. We needed bigger boots, and I got a different hat. If I knew how to photoshop stuff, I could almost make my deck look like a ship's deck, huh? Well, I don't so this will have to do. Have a Happy Halloween & a great week.

What fun!

2010-10-17T13:01:00.000-07:00

Last year, Lydia toyed with the idea of riding the rides BRIEFLY. She went so far as to sit in one, but immediately changed her mind and wanted off! Part of her unwillingness to ride may have been due to the fact that she wasn't feeling well. It turned out she was running a fever, but she never complained before left the house to meet Lulu & Grace Ann.
This year, though, she climbed into her first ride with almost no trepidation at all. And once it jerked into motion, her biggest smile emerged. She didn't care who she rode with (I'm pretty sure she didn't really strike up any conversations, though), and she was willing to try any ride EXCEPT the Chinese dragon rollercoaster. Go figure. It was sort of loud, and it required that an adult ride with her. Her little hands were sweating, and she was turning her gaze away from it as we stood in line. I asked her if she really wanted to ride it, and she seemed sort of relieved to say, "No." Rather than ruin her new found confidence, I stepped out of line and let her pick a different ride.
Recent Lydia quotes:
Gene: Has anyone ever told you you're silly?
Lydia: Has anyone ever told you I'm precious?

Gene: Don't do that, Baby.
Lydia: I'm not Baby. I'm Honey!
Please. She's pretty much the queen bee.

Sunday Snapshot

2010-10-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

About a decade ago, I made a new friend through work. Tracey was the first person who ever mentioned the words "community group" to me. She was wondering about what she was going to fix to take to community group. I got the notion that it was some sort of supper club where everyone brought part of the meal and the location rotated to different houses each month.

Years later, Gene and I joined the church Tracey had been attending. Once we'd fallen head over heels in love with this church, we were encouraged to join a community group. That's when I learned that there was a LOT more to a community group than a supper club (and where I learned that making desserts may be one of my spiritual gifts -just kidding! I think I just love making them as much as eating them). Some churches call them small groups, but whatever you call them, they can be such a great way to connect.

When Gene decided that we were going to adopt, he had CONDITIONS. One of those conditions was that we were going to attend church together, something we'd never made a practice. We're pretty private people, and left to our own devices, we'd have loved attending church on Sundays without ever really getting to know anyone. Our church, however, wasn't the sort to let that happen. They didn't FORCE us to join a group, it was just felt right when we committed to the church.

So, after about 4 years, we have settled into our current community group. This is the group that goes camping! And this is the group that make me excited to go sleep in a tent in 100+degree temps. These are the people I got up early (ok, it was early for ME) to paint a bathroom as our City Fest project yesterday. These are people who cried with us when Gene's mom died, who pray with us, who break bread with us, and who share their lives with us. I tend to believe we're living a bit like the early Church described in Acts lived. We love each others' children, we help each other bear our burdens, and we know we can tell each other anything in absolute confidence. Most importantly, our community group has begun to feel like family and helps me see that we're all part of God's family.

This is my first Sunday Snapshot linked up to Ni Hao, Ya'll

Camping 2.0, SEC Game Day 3.0 and Birthday 4.0

2010-09-20T13:27:00.000-07:00

We had a merger this weekend. We rolled the second community group camp out, Razorback vs GA Bulldog and L(arcenous) S(tinky) U(gly) Tiger vs Mississippi State Bulldog football watch party, and Lydia's 4th Birthday party all into one weekend. BUT wait! There's more: we squeezed in a trip to a Mexican restaurant, tubing, and fishing, too.

The air mattress before it completely deflated Friday night

Base camp - notice the satellite dish?

Gene and I stretched the birthday into a weekend starting with a few gifts on Friday to make the trip more fun - Lydia got her rod & reel, hula hoop, new Hello Kitty bike, and bubbles. Saturday was game day, and our base camp became tail gate central with the addition of our brand spanking new satellite and tv - well, and with Teresa's awesome walking tacos for lunch and Whole Hog Cafe's BBQ for supper. Boating happened before & after the first game, and the kids LOVED it.

The next morning the ladies, two youngest children (including the birthday girl), and two men set out in the boat. It was the smoothest I've ever seen the lake! I was afraid the water would be too cold to enjoy, but I was so wrong. We've had such hot weather that it was perfect.

We had one more group hit the water for about 2 hours, and then it was time for cake & presents. It was so much fun in spite of the heat (it was epic, ya'll!) and the air mattress fail on Friday night that led to the purchase on a new one Saturday night. We even had a raid by some wild animal before we got up Sunday morning that I slept through because a) I was exhausted b)the fan was blowing right on my head and c) if it didn't invade the tent or turn the fan off I didn't care what it did.

Flash back

2010-09-16T21:11:00.000-07:00

I was recounting a story from college to one of my patients Tuesday. A decade and a half ago, my father wanted me to become a pharmacist, and I sat for the PCAT test. While waiting for the results, I was taking organic chemistry. The instructor seemed so witty and nice the first day. He insisted we could come to his office during his office hours and ask ANYTHING, there were no stupid questions.

I completely aced the first quiz, but I was struggling to interpret something from the book before the second one. It seemed there were two ways it COULD be interpreted, but one way was right & the other way wouldn't be. Taking the good professor at his word, I hauled my backpack up to his office and waited, and waited and waited to ask my question. He was soooo jovial as he answered all the cute, giggly girls' questions. Some of those questions might have seemed silly, but, none of them were stupid -he'd assured us there were no such things.

At last, my turn came to ask my question. I explained my dilemma that as I saw it there were two possible ways to name whatever organic chemical it was, and I couldn't decide which was correct. Can you imagine my chagrin, the stinging humiliation I felt when Dr. Gigglebox said, "Well! Did you read the book?!?" A little flustered, I opened the book to the passage that had me confused to show him the wording that had me perplexed. I got my answer, but I vowed I wouldn't go ask that miserable old wind bag another "not stupid question" if that was the treatment I was going to receive.

Today, my women's Bible study began. We're studying the book of James, and our praise & worship leader, Aaron, did an interpretive recitation of the WHOLE book from memory. Wow! It really helped me understand the book better, and I really was moved. That's God's word, written in Aaron's memory and on his heart.

I felt pretty humbled. You see, I'd started the day off in a snit. It's true, and I'll own up to it: I am resistant to change. The powers that be within our women's ministry changed our day and time of Bible study, and it is a one shot deal. ALL the studies are on one day at the same time. Thursday is the worst possible day for me to take a half day out of my part time job. Totally inconvenient! for So. Many. Reasons.

But as I sat there this morning, the Holy Spirit stirred within me taming the rebellion that was stirring up a hurricane of discontent. And as a gentle peace settled over me (as it always seems to when I study God's word with these ladies), I had a moment of resolve. I want to know my God better. I want to want the things He wants, and reading His word is one of the ways to get there.

I don't want to ask Him a question someday and have Him say, even with the gentlest hint of rebuke, "Well, have you read the Book?"

Still not much going on

2010-09-01T08:40:00.000-07:00

Work is slow, the water park is only open on the weekend (and this is the LAST weekend they are open), the new women's Bible study hasn't started, BUT football season is about to come roaring in. It's supposed to be a promising football season, and yet the spirit of excitement hasn't even begun to stir in me. Isn't anticipation supposed to be a big part of the joy in an upcoming event? Hopefully, I'm just conserving energy for the actual event.

I've always been the sort most people consider "low key", not given to extremes. Still, I always found it embarrassingly easy to cry. For the past two years, though, I haven't cried much - not at funerals, not at commercials, not during those touching moments in movies that used to have Gene smirking and looking sideways at me to see when the water works would start. The message at church on Sunday was about caring for orphans, a subject very dear to my heart. I only managed a few tears that seemed to be glued to my eyes determined to blur my vision lacking either the gravity to fall or more tears to force them out of the way.

While that seemed really odd to me, I've since cried buckets. I've cried and prayed for the health and life of a precious little girl just home from China whom the doctors have given no hope. I've cried over this video on youtube that I found to be very moving. In fact, I cried so much Monday that on Tuesday my eye lids were still thick and fat as if they'd stored tears like a hamster stores food in its cheeks. Watching Aftermath with William Shatner: Ruby Ridge , I teared up as I listened to Sara Weaver tell of how she forgave the people who killed her mother and brother and how forgiving them set her free. Maybe the last one wasn't so odd, even Mr. Shatner shed some very real tears as he listened.

So, while not much has been going on & I'm not sure of any of its significance, there it is. I will say that I don't mind the tears coming back. I'd hate to think that maturity meant I was going to be increasingly detached and less sympathetic.

Finally, to reward those who come to see pictures of Lydia and suffer through my ramblings to get to them, I'm going to try to change the header picture with every post. Note I said TRY. It takes a while to do so skip down to the title to make sure it hasn't changed. Love ya! Thanks for caring enough to follow along.

The goods

2010-08-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

A list of a few good things from the last few days:

1. I made it to the grocery store.
2. B/C of #1 we have THREE gallons of milk (we are always running out b/c the boy/man child thinks of milk as a beverage - I consider it a condiment for cereal or a necessary ingredient for something else)
3. I cooked dinner! I'm not sure why #1 & #3 have been so difficult lately, but we have eaten out a BUNCH.
4. I worked today & my case load is building back up (I am claiming that in faith! b/c really, I only have 2 patients).
5. I have a really cool new boss whose British-ness tickles me no end! It's like BBC telly, only LIVE & in person. AND? She likes BBC, so I have someone who shares Drew's & my love of Top Gear!
6. We had a bit of rain. It's still hot. It's still humid, but we needed the rain so that's good.
7. My friends returned from Disney World. I was half convinced they'd stay as they were loving it so much. They went without children. Can you imagine how easy that must've been?
8. Drew returned to school. It's his last year!
9. Really, life has been sort of mundane, but somehow, I am really liking that.

Really?

2010-08-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

Lydia started telling us stories. The made up variety of stories as if they were real kind of stories. For instance, she started talking about how Gege took her to the river last day (usually means yesterday in Lydia language), and Lydia floated down the river to the bridge. Well, Drew has NEVER taken her to the river. There were at least 3 other fictitious stories told on the way to dinner.

I was supposed to choose the restaurant for dinner tonight, and I chose Moe's. Lydia was none too pleased. A few minutes later, she came back with some line of how Moe's would do. I had to laugh because there are times that my own words come right out of her mouth, and there is no doubt that she is my daughter.

And speaking of choosing a restaurant, have you ever experienced that reluctance of everyone in a group to make a decision/choice? Lydia is the solution. She WILL offer a suggestion and or make a choice in this situation. I don't need that iPhone ap to pick for me. I have Lydia.

Next post may or may not be about one of my bosses who reminds me of Dawn French as the Vicar of Dibley.

Car Wash

2010-08-14T10:08:00.000-07:00

You might remember that Lydia has a strong aversion to the car wash. However, when Gene came home and told Lydia to put her swimsuit on so they could wash her car, she was hopping with excitement. And moments after this shot, Gene was hopping (and I was running with my camera) to get out of the way...

So, after Gene dried himself off, it was time to dry Lydia's car so there wouldn't be any water spots to ruin the finish.

Washing a car with Gene is usually a long, drawn out affair. Thank goodness Lydia's car is small! What a shame, though, that she's still too small to ride in it in a booster seat. Someday, Sweetie, someday all your hard work at the car wash will pay off.

My MIL

2010-08-07T05:12:00.000-07:00

I've been married to Gene for nearly a quarter of a century. To say I've been lucky or blessed is an understatement because I didn't just get a husband. God gave me a godly mother in law, too.

I never argued with my MIL. There was never any need. Roberta was always there if I needed her, and she wasn't intrusive by nature. You couldn't have asked for a more caring family member, but she somehow managed to respect us enough to give us enough room to breathe. If she was ever critical of me or what I did, I never knew it, either. If you have a monster in law, I'll certainly feel sorry for you, but I won't have any experiences to share with you of how I handled a similar situation with my MIL.

This morning we received the call from hospice that my mother in law had passed away. That hospice made the call tells you we knew she would be leaving us soon. She had Alzheimer's, and she's had a steady decline over the last few months so my tears aren't in shock. Mostly they are because my children no longer have any grandparents and because Lydia won't get to know Roberta the way Drew did.

It was a given with Alzheimer's that Roberta wouldn't have gotten better, but she never forgot who her immediate family was. She remembered that we were getting Lydia while we were in China, and she never forgot her after meeting her. She latched onto Lydia's name and must've tattooed it on her heart because she never even struggled to remember it. I don't even know how to tell Lydia she's gone.

I mourn that Lydia won't be able to share the experiences Drew had with their grandmother. She got him out of daycare weekly to take him to story time at the library. When I was young and arrogant enough to think that I didn't need to attend church because God was everywhere and not just in church, Roberta took Drew to church weekly. I have to give most the of the human credit for Drew's spirituality to her, and I am so thankful that she, my father in law, and God led him in the right direction while I was standing still or wandering in the wrong directions.

I'm thankful for the wonderful woman who was my mother in law, my heart rejoices that she's gone to be where her soul undoubtedly rejoices to be, and I cry because we've lost someone so dear.

Quacking up

2010-06-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Those who know me well know that for over a decade of my life I lived to show dogs. We had MANY dogs. We added a shop to our property with indoor/outdoor runs for the dogs (and a big honking workshop for Gene, but he sold me on the idea by pitching it as good for the dogs). We invested almost as much money (maybe more) as we did time on the dogs, equipment, and entry fees to the shows.

Let's just say that things have changed. While there is nothing wrong with showing dogs, showing dogs being the REASON you think you live might be a little skewed. So, we've reset our moral compasses. We only have 5 dogs (I know! You're thinking that is still a whole lot of dogs!!!), and we don't need all the dog equipment we have. Gene probably would have gladly put it on the curb for anyone to pick up. I would have gladly gone to my grave with it still neatly in the shop. Since I can't take it with me when I am gone, though, I gave in.

Gene placed an ad on Craig's List, and the response has been overwhelming. And, ummm, interesting. You need to know that there are people out there who will call out of random curiosity. Those same people may come by just to look. Some of those people will swear they will come back with cash in hand for "this, that & that, too." You may never hear from these people ever again. Or you may hear from them a week later when you've given up on them and sold those items to someone else.

Some folks will want a price, "If I buy the whole lot" which I think they should stop being lazy & just add it up their own darned self. People! This is already deeply discounted!!! All of it is in good to excellent condition. I try to be patient. I just have to share the most unusual email, though:

"Do you have pictures of anything that could be used for duck housing? I currently am in need of houses for 8 ducks…"

Ya'll. Seriously. We do NOT have a quack house.

Loves & Hates

2010-06-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a list of some of Lydia's favorite things:

Popsicles
sidewalk chalk
bubbles
WATER!
Chickfila
but her number one, favorite thing? Locking doors! Oh, the JOY of running ahead of someone through an open door, slamming it shut and locking it!!!! What could be better? It's just too funny, isn't it? I know. There are those little keys that come with the door knobs, and we used to store them on top of the door frame. I, however, am short, and this is not easy for me to access. I finally wised up and got some of that yellow putty stuff and put it on the side of the door frame out of Lydia's reach but within mine.

Tonight, Gene was sitting on our upper deck which is located just off our bedroom. Lydia and I went out for just a few minutes (too hot & humid to enjoy for long), and then we went down stairs to watch a video before bed. I got a text from Gene, "Tell Lydia she's funny" I was about to reply, "huh?" when it occurred to me that she had locked him out on the upper deck. You can't climb down, there is no other entry than the sliding glass doors. I think I was both horrified AND laughing. I guess I will just have to be extra careful not to let her be inside while I'm out on the upper deck. Yikes!

So what does Lydia hate? And I don't mean she has a dislike for, I mean deep and abiding hatred: the car wash. You can scarcely get in the car without her mentioning that she doesn't want to go to the car wash. She talks about them as we drive past them, and there are a surprising number of car washes in our home town. I have no idea why she doesn't like them. We've only been to 2-3 with her. She is not afraid of water spray in her face. Oh, well. There's no explaining some things.

LaLa Land

2010-06-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

It's not what you think. You see, when Lydia was younger, she referred to herself as LaLa because she couldn't say Lydia. LaLa has morphed into someone else, though. She's that little busybody who is always doing something wrong. Lydia is constantly telling us about LaLa's misdeeds or what LaLa says.

Lydia, however, continues to amuse us with funny things she says:

1. Mommy! Mommy! This cherry doesn't have a handle (stem)!

2. No, Mommy. It's not cotton farming it's cotton candy!

3. "This one is blue. This one is purple. This one is green. This one is yellow. And those are your options." She was showing all her plastic spoons to someone - LaLa maybe?

4. She used consequently in a sentence, too, which sort of blew my mind.

I'm going to have to start carrying something around to write these down so I can remember them.

Oh! And Lydia went to her first concert last week. Lulu, who is MY best friend and in no way related to LaLa, took us to see Kris Allen. Lydia had a super time with Grace Ann. They shared cotton candy, popcorn, and M&Ms.

Finally, a prayer request: please pray for our friend, Tim & his family. Tim is undergoing tests & we want good results!

Atta Girl!

2010-05-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

I am one proud mommy today. My baby girl did something many a grown man appears to be incapable of doing. I'm seriously considering making a tutorial starring Lydia to use in public service announcements. She may even start giving public presentations at events men commonly attend to teach this incredible skill - Look! It's so simple a 3 year old can do it!

Lydia went upstairs, got a roll of toilet paper, carried it to the downstairs bathroom, and put it on the roller! All! By! Herself! Even better? I didn't even tell her to do it!!! Nor have I ever asked her to replace the roll. That, my friends, is showing some initiative.

Thanks for listening. I was just about to burst with pride.

When it rains

2010-05-23T19:31:00.000-07:00

My minivan started doing the double time clicking when I used my turn indicator (commonly know as blinker), and so I KNEW I needed to get a replacement bulb. It was on my to-do list.

Last night, I had an allergic reaction to what I had for lunch - I know, it's a bizarre delayed reaction, but I don't think I can deny it any longer. I am allergic to beef. Or something they add to it. It led to me taking 3 benadryl, and not long after that, I was asleep.

Gene kindly let me sleep, and then said, as he was leaving, "You and Lydia are going to second service, right?" Uh-huh, it looked that way, but Lydia must've woken up when Gene shut the door. I figured that if I hurried, I could make it to first service. So I hurried until my hair dryer died in a fireworks display that was way too close for comfort. I had no back up hair dryer (should that be drier? whatever). I went to first service any way. I bought a new hair dryer on the way home, and I asked Gene to pick up a bulb for my van.

My luck hadn't changed yet, though. When I was opening a can, a gear broke off my can opener. I'd loaned my manual can opener to my younger sister. When it rains, it pours.

More from the backseat

2010-05-20T20:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight we were driving through a neighborhood when we saw a ten or elevenish year old boy in his garage. Lydia yells, "Hey! Put your shirt back on!"

That's my daughter, the decency police.

Luckily, the vehicle windows were in the closed position ; )

From the back seat

2010-05-12T20:54:00.000-07:00

As I was driving home with Lydia this evening, she told me, "Mom, Mommy, MOMMEEEEEEEEEEEEY! I'll get you markers when we get home AND a piece of paper. You can draw a picture, and I'll put it on the fridge. Just be patient!" She followed up with, "Be PATIENT. Hold your horses."

I'm not sure when these conversations occurred, but at least I know she listened ; )

And she told her brother, "Bless your heart." LOL.

A moment to remember

2010-05-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

Has your child ever made you glow with pride just by saying something so perceptive? A moment where you just wanted to stand up and yell, "That's MY daughter/son!!!" for the whole world to know because clearly you are doing such an awesome job of raising her/him? Well? Have you? If the answer is yes, good for you. That's not what this post is about.

We went to the little dairy bar where our journey to Lydia more or less began for french fries & ice cream (because I'm doing such an awesome job of raising her to eat good, healthy food). After we finished the main course, Lydia and I were waiting in line to order our ice cream. The gentleman in front of us had tattoos, a sunburn, a funky mustache, and a well rounded abdomen.

Lydia, who is incapable of a "quiet" or "inside" voice (irrelevant in any case since we were outdoors, albeit under the covered area of the dairy bar) said, "MOMMY? WHAT'S INSIDE THAT MAN'S BELLY?"

I quietly answered, "Probably food."

She? Was NOT satisfied with my answer. So she asked HIM.

"DO YOU HAVE A BABY IN YOUR BELLY?"

At that point, I should have been glowing. You know, with embarrassment or something similar, but I wasn't. I just told myself that there is no way to control a 3 year old's mouth. Oh, and that I might want to explain WOMEN can have babies in their bellies, but it's not likely that a man would. And maybe I could come up with some sort of way to teach her that it's probably NEVER a good idea to ask if someone is pregnant even if that someone is a woman.

Do you want to know what that sweet gentleman told Lydia was in his belly? "Probably beer. A LOT of it." Klassy with a capital K, for sure ; ) Something every three year old needs to know...

Camping pictures

2010-04-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a little collage of some of the fun we had. Everyone arrived on Friday, and we set up our campsites. There were 3 pop-up campers and 2 tents, and my happy little family was in one of those tents sans heating and air conditioning. We ate at the lodge the first night, and it's a good thing the wait staff and other patrons were understanding of how loud and rowdy 10 kids can be.

Saturday morning Heidi made eggs, biscuits, gravy and bacon. It really sounds like we were roughing it, doesn't it? After everyone was wide awake, we hit the trail to see the water fall. It was only a 2.2 mile hike round trip, but most of it was very steep! When we returned, we had tacos for lunch. It just wouldn't be a weekend this time of year without baseball so Gene and I listened to the Hogs while Lydia napped (ok, so we all sort of napped). Saturday night was brats, hot dogs & hamburgers with cheese dip. Some of the kids went fishing with Josh while the baseball/nap was happening. I took a bunch of the little ones (some in their pajamas) through a wooded area to listen to a park ranger presentation on the 7 Wonders of Petit Jean. That was a hoot as another little kid kept thinking he saw an owl at the back of the building and kept interrupting the show to point it out (pun sort of intended there). So the 8th wonder must be whether an owl was really in the building or not.

Sunday mornign brought us pancakes and waffles. Obviously, I need not have worried about the food on our trip: it was all delicious! Did you know Walmart sold waffles in aerosol cans like whipped cream? After eating we headed out for a short hike to a cave. Lydia loved everything about camping and our trip, but when we came to the trail she wanted to know what we were doing. I said, "We're going on a hike!" Her response? "NOT AGAIN!!!" I had to reassure her it was an short, easy hike nothing like the day before had been. After the hike, we loaded up our tent and headed back home.

I was WRONG (again)

2010-04-18T20:47:00.000-07:00

I have had a deep and abiding hatred for camping for at least 2 decades now. My dad used to take us camping, and we simply threw a sleeping bag down on the ground and slept beneath the stars. He even cooked over an open fire. No showers, no toilets, no tent, no electricity, no running water, no park rangers - no park, for that matter. And I used to think that was fun.

When we moved to Arkansas, I had my first encounter with poison ivy, and camping ceased to be fun. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I got poison ivy. Knowing that poison ivy was pretty much a given, I started finding fault with everything about camping. You get dirty, you can't shower every day, you can't blow your hair dry, there's no internet access (isn't that like saying there's no oxygen to breathe?), no fun. Instead you get: bugs, ticks, dirt, sweaty or rained on or frozen, hiking, smoke, and poison ivy.

Needless to say, I was not a fan of camping. So, when we were trying out our new community group and they mentioned camping trips and wanted to schedule them at our first meeting, I was ready to ditch said community group. Camping=Deal Breaker for Suzy. God loves me, though, and he rained out the first trip in the fall. Thank YOU, God. Thank you!!!!Thank you!!!

You know that saying that God loves you right where you are, but He loves you too much to leave you there? You guessed it: He provided perfect weather for the scheduled camping trip this weekend. I could not see a way out of it, either, unless I had a body organ removed. I am running short on those nonessential organs though, so I didn't even ASK God to intervene there. I was pretty snotty about it though. I really, Really, REALLY did NOT want to go camping. In a tent. Outside where there is a LOT of dirt & bugs & no climate control. Puh Leeeeeeze don't make me GO!!!!!

No way out of it. I went, and I had a super duper time. I don't mean that it was tolerable. It was really FUN. The company of my community group was a big part of it. Lydia's joy in getting to play with other kids all weekend was part of it. Watching my husband work his logistics magic was part of it (but for the record we need MORE than 2 towels, we need the heater AND a fan). Seeing how lovely God made the earth was another part of it. The whole of it, though, was more than just the sum of its parts.

I'll blog about it more & have pictures later, and I'll be SURE to let you know if I got into any poison ivy.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T19:19:00.000-07:00

We (even DREW!) attended the church Easter Egg hunt this morning. Is there anything more beautiful than families gathered to celebrate Christ's resurrection? Sure, there was candy, a bouncy house, an inflated slide, singing, a puppet show, and other things that don't appear to have much to do with Jesus, but isn't it sweet that He loved us enough to die for us? Don't you want to jump up and down with excitement that you are forgiven? What is a better way to celebrate?

After spending some time at church enjoying the glorious weather, we ate lunch then went to a nursery to buy flowers for the yard. Gene and I dug in the dirt and listened to the Hogs play baseball while Lydia napped. I hope you had an even better day! Tell me all about it, won't you?

Better Late Than Never

2010-03-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

There is the most fantastic give away going on at Women Who Do It All. She's giving away a Cricut to some lucky person. And if you win? I hope you'll invite me over so I can see how badly I need one.

Dedicated

2010-02-14T12:56:00.000-08:00

Our church doesn't do baby dedications very often, and we chose not to participate in one immediately after we brought Lydia home as it seemed a little intimidating to be the center of attention so soon after we became a family. Understanding her nature a little more now, it might not have mattered a bit. She's probably always going to be a little on the vocal (and LOUD) side, regardless of the circumstances.
The happy family ready to walk on stage.
On stage as the verse we chose was read, "For this child I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. So I have also dedicated him to the Lord; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the Lord..." (1 Samuel 1:27-28)
We were blessed to have my brother and sister and two of Lydia's cousins present, and unexpectedly blessed that my friend, Katie & her husband Brian, visited during this sevice, too.

It was a fantastic morning with temperatures nearing 50 degrees, and the snow was nearly all melted and gone. Right now? It's snowing BIG, FAT FLUFFY flakes, and it is a joy to watch the airy ballet those flakes perform as they fall to the ground.

May your week be blessed, filled with joy, wonder, beauty, and dedication to God's call to love.

1st hair cut

2010-02-13T13:45:00.000-08:00

Lydia's hair had obviously been trimmed right before we met her. It was fairly straight across (with a slight diagonal slant) in the back. Once, I even trimmed where her hair came to a funny point in the front. But today we went to Walmart for a REAL haircut.
The bribe was that she'd get to go to a certain chicken place afterward for a milkshake & fries if she was very, very still while the stylist worked.
Lydia really, really TRIED to be still, and the results show that she was reasonably successful. After I'd paid Karla and left her a very generous tip (and she totally earned it), Lydia was rewarded with a Winnie the Pooh balloon plus the milkshake and fries.
Gene had said he didn't know who would cry more: me or Lydia. In the end, no tears were shed. Just a few inches of hair...

A very bad mom

2010-02-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

In which I confess my short comings:

We took Lydia to our local Families with Children from China's Chinese New Year event tonight, and I failed to bring our camera. That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg.

You see, I WANT my daughter to have some appreciation of what it means to be Chinese. I TRY to attend as many of the FCC events as I can. I even read books like My First Chinese New Year. I read it Thursday, as a matter of fact.

Tonight, Gene got Lydia dressed in her red silk outfit, and we were off to celebrate our daughter's birth culture with other families like ours. We took Keith & Lisa with us since they will be Lydia's godparents.

As we walked into the building, Lydia looked at all the other little boys and girls from China and asked me, "Where's Santa?" Yes, she did. Probably because the last time we were with this group of children was at the Christmas party. So, I explained that Santa was part of Christmas, but we were there to celebrate Chinese New Year. She still wanted to know where Santa was, and I explained that he was up at the North Pole with the elves busily making toys for good little girls and boys for NEXT Christmas which was 11 months away.

Lydia ate Chinese food, participated in the Ribbon Dance and the Dragon Dance (she really did her own thing, for the most part), and had a great time doing the craft activities. I thought we'd had a really great evening when I asked, "Ok, are you ready to go now?"

"No. I want to wait for Santa Claus." So, I'll see you guys in about 11 months...

2010-02-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

My poor little baby girl isn't feeling well. We went to the doctor, and got 2 prescriptions she did NOT like. She slept fitfully last night, and she woke at one fussing. I went in to check on her, and the only thing that would console her was the promise that I'd lie on the floor next to her bed for a while. I dragged her big ladybug pillow over, draped a blanket over me, and the next thing I knew I was fairly stiff at 4am.

At 5am the dogs woke Lydia or Lydia woke the dogs. I brought her into my bed in the hopes of getting a little more rest if not actual sleep. Success!

However, she was still asleep at 8:30 and felt feverish. I was kicking myself for not trying to get some acetaminophen into her at 5am. What do you do, though? She needed the sleep, the struggle would have most certainly woken her up, and I'm really not at my best that early (stop laughing, Gene).

Lydia kept stirring without really waking, and I kept worrying. I leaned over and asked, "Lydia, do you want a popsicle for breakfast?" Her eyes flew open, she said, "YES!" and she was out of bed in a flash.

So, in short order, she was awake, had taken her medicine, and was better hydrated. For once, I felt like a very clever momma.

Fluff

2010-01-27T19:26:00.000-08:00

I don't really feel like blogging about the events of life happening around me right now. You can watch an episode of Jerry Springer if you want to get the general idea.

Instead, I want to do something a little lighter and fluffier. So, I'm going to do a list of things I AM enjoying right now:

*BBC America: it has some of my new favorite shows. I've stumbled onto Dr. Who and Top Gear, and I'm hard pressed to say which I like more. Probably Dr. Who, but I could just swoon listening to the guys on Top Gear enthuse over automobiles. And the way they say "aluminum" makes me giggle. Ummm, and when they talk about "brake horse power", I find that a teeny little bit amusing, too. I want to be a guest celebrity to drive their track in their reasonably priced car, but they need to get either an automatic or one with the gear shift where God intended gear shifts to go (on the right hand side, naturally). I think my son should be The Stig for Halloween next year.

*Build A Be@r: oh, the accessories!!!! They don't get lost as easily as B@rbie's shoes. No one makes me feel guilty about how playing with them will damage my daughter's psyche and ruin her body image.

*American Idol: is it Simon's accent? the really talented? the really untalented? the stories? Who knows, but for whatever reason, I really do enjoy it.

*My new church building, my new Sunday school curriculum, my new(ish) community group, and my women's Bible study. Oh! And Drew gave me My Utmost for His Highest & that's really, really good, too!

*Watching as my son trains for a half marathon. I am proud of my couch potato!

*Taking Lydia to gymnastics. If she ever settles down & pays attention, I think she's got potential.

There. I feel better now. It's not exactly counting my blessings, but it does remind me that it's not all bad.

All over the place

2009-12-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

Fasten your seatbelts, this post is going all over the place.

Last night Lydia and I went to our first Christmas party of the year. There were so many beautiful families there! There were children from several different countries decked out in their holiday best. Guess who else was there? SANTA. Lydia and I waited for her turn to sit on his lap, and she was a teeny bit anxious. The little girl immediately in front of us in line began to scream and cry when placed in his lap, and I figured Lydia would follow her example. She didn't though, and I am hoping the photographer got a good shot of her big cheesy grin.

If you're wondering if she asked the jolly old elf for macaroni and cheese, I don't know. When I asked her what she asked for, she said, "A boy!" Hmmm. Is that better than asking for a pony?

The other day we were in the car, and she was asking a BUNCH of questions. She dropped something and asked me if I knew where it was. I said, "I don't have a clue." Her response?

"Get a clue, Mommy!" Hehehe.

She's 3 now, and keeping her out of the tree? It's not so easy. One heavy ornament was lying at the base of the tree (not sure how it got there), and she snatched it up. I sternly told her to bring it to me. She complied but not quite how I'd hoped. She walked toward me and HURLED it. I had no time to react, and it hit me below the corner of my mouth. OUCH!!! and time out. The girl has quite an arm. and while I don't want to stunt her development into a world class softball pitcher, for the safety of my smile, it was necessary.

Our church has moved into our new building - we were meeting in trailors, ya'll. I got to teach my 3 & 4 year old class in my new room for the first time. It was great! And we started a new curriculum, too, called Kingdom Kids. I LOVED IT!!! It was so much easier than trying to wing it, and I didn't feel like it was quite so chaotic. Plus, they really got Sunday School instead of crowd control/babysitting.

BTW, when I tried to get some clarification of what sort of boy she wanted, she told me, "A brown one." Which was followed by, "And a pink one, and an orange one. Now, Mommy! I want one now." Hmmm. I'm more puzzled than before I asked.

Check Engine Light

2009-12-08T15:03:00.000-08:00

I really, Really, REALLY wanted to adopt from China. I think God must have planted this desire in my heart long ago, but it grew into the biggest mustard tree of desire in about 2004. I'm not so sure He had planted the same seed in Gene's heart at the same time because he was what adoption bloggers call a RH (Reluctant Husband). However, God is a mighty God, and He gave me a very, very good husband.

One cold, rainy day my husband called me at work, and my heart nearly stopped. He asked me if I remembered him telling me that his truck's check engine light had been on, and I did remember that. I'd taken him to pick it up from the garage after I thought they had fixed it.

They had NOT fixed it. They said there was no real problem - just a faulty indicator, and if he could live with the annoyance of the light, it would save him money. As Gene told me that, I thought, "Oh, GREAT! The engine blew up. That's going to cost a fortune to fix." I should never assume I know where a conversation is going, though, because that's not at all what had happened.

It turned out that Gene had asked God if we were supposed to adopt. And he asked for a sign. Being a man, he didn't ask in a general "give me a sign" that could be misinterpreted. Oh, no. He asked God to make that check engine light go off if He wanted us to adopt.

And you know what? When Gene came back to the truck that light was off. I thought he'd asked for a pretty silly sign since if the light stayed on, it would presumably eventually burn out. That wasn't the case, though, it still comes on when you start the truck like it is supposed to do.

I can't say it was all easy from that point on, but we did proceed with adopting from China. What followed after that prayer has been nothing short of one of the most extreme home makeovers, ever. Maybe I'll blog about that another day. Right now I'm just going to stop and thank God for Gene, his truck, and God's willingness to answer Gene's prayer so clearly.

More Secrets

2009-12-03T19:56:00.000-08:00

Remember my recent post about secrets? I got a coupon for a free pair of under we@r from that store, and who doesn't like free stuff? So, I went, got my free pair, washed them and I wore them yesterday. Can I tell you a secret? I'd rather go without than wear them again. After years of wearing their USUAL cotton product, they've gone all cheap and there are seams at the side. All day as I worked, I kept thinking, "WHAT is wrong with me? Something is rubbing at my waist. What could it be???" And it sort of made me irritable. One of my patients commented that I was quiet and seemed preoccupied.

Gene wanted to take me and Lydia out to eat last night, and I promise you that I had to go home and change under garments before I could go out to eat.

So I sent them an email and let them know I've had better luck with the brand Mich@el Jord@n promotes. I so hope they go back to making them seamless. It was worth the extra money for how comfortable they were. Gene would tell you that I don't splurge on many things, and I HATE the mall. They had previously earned my devotion, and I was a loyal customer.

Dear Santa

2009-11-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

Lydia had been looking through a catalog this morning. After we'd been through it several times, I asked her what she'd like for Christmas.

She didn't even pause before she said:

MACARONI AND CHEESE.

I wonder if Santa's elves use Velveeta or Kraft?

How cool is that?

2009-11-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

Last night, one of my F@ceb00k friends mentioned that he'd seen the International Space Station orbit over his house. I was rather bummed because I'd missed it. But you know what's cool about it? It was going to happen again tonight. And there's a LINK to tell you when it will pass over your zipcode, too! So, at 6pm, we all went to our "observation" deck upstairs to see it. And we DID see it. How cool is that? It's about as bright as a planet right now but it moves a little slower than an airplane. I'm sure it's much, much faster than an airplane really, but it appears to move slower than one. You know what's sort of funny about this whole story? I wouldn't wait in line outside for Black Friday shopping, but I stood out on my deck waiting to see the space station orbit overhead. Where are my priorities?

And in other news: a ladybug rode on my windshield this evening. Referrals must surely be on their way soon. At least I dearly hope that's the case for those who are STILL waiting. Those still in line have waited long enough to go through two consecutive elephant pregnancies, I think.

A big girl and the unexpected

2009-11-18T21:01:00.000-08:00

At least she's not asking for the keys to the car just yet, but she is wearing her big girl Dora under wear. Oh, but we can't just do one thing like switch under clothing. No, sireee. We go whole hog around here. We switched to the big girl bed, too. I'll let you know how that goes. Her pajamas (size 3T) looked ENORMOUS on the hanger at K0hl's. Surely it would be a while before they fit. Ummm. Ok, later that night. LOL. She's getting to be a big girl. She's even moved up to the gymnastics class without mom.

On another note, I had Chinese food for lunch, and you know what that means? No, I'm not referring to water retention from the sodium. Fortune cookies! Mine was one I'd never gotten before: An unexpected event will soon make your life more exciting. Call me a fool, but I was darned near giddy thinking about what that could possibly mean for my future. Well, the possibilities are virtually endless, aren't they? Should I buy a lottery ticket? Cause we totally have those in Arkansas now. No. If I bought a ticket, there'd be a certain EXPECTATION of winning, wouldn't there? Will Gene suddenly decide Lydia needs a little sister or brother?

And then, well,THEN reality reared its head. It's a fortune cookie. And the fortune cookie probably isn't God's chosen method of communication. What was I thinking? That some prophet at the cookie factory printed it out just for me? Still, I often wish God would spell things out to me. Of course, He has through the Bible, but you know things like which job to take, how should I spend my weekend, what should I say or do for someone who is hurting, which cause do I support with my extra money or time?

Of course there are times when I think God does tell us specific things through our "circumstances". I believe He shows us His love in so many ways from a beautiful day to phone calls from out of the blue from a childhood friend, unexpected encounters and events. Maybe even fortune cookies...

That's a crock!

2009-11-11T23:42:00.000-08:00

Remember me mentioning that I needed a new crock pot for the chili cook-off? Let me tell you something: it's a humdinger. It is so marvelous, so wonderful that MEN were admiring it. Gene was simply in awe. It started out with, "I thought you'd overfilled it. I was wondering how we were going to get it there without spilling until I notice that the LID LOCKS in to place!"

But wait! There's more! It has a retractable cord!!!! That's where it end for most of the men. I suppose it'd be even more spectacular if it had a rechargeable battery pack, a Tums dispenser, and made dovetailed joints, but even so, it drew quite a lot of admiration from the men. And I didn't even have to don a pair of fish net hose...

What's in a name? AKA: the post I meant to do Sunday

2009-11-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

Do you like to pick out names? I do. In fact, I love doing it. Back when Gene and I were showing dogs, thinking up a registered name for the dog was one of my favorite things. If we could come up with a theme for a litter of puppies? Even better! If the registered name went with the call name? I felt like I'd hit some incredible jackpot. One friend had a litter she wanted to use the word "tell" in all the registered names. I came up with "Dakota (kennel name)'s Tell Tail Heart" which was a play on the famous Poe short story title. I did a litter with "wish" in all the registered names. My friend Kathy came up with my favorite, "Premier's From Wags to Wishes."

It took Gene and I an eternity to decide on Lydia's name. Or rather to agree on a name. He wanted to use the name Grace for her middle name, and I just thought it had an odd flow with our last name. Now that she calls me Mommy Grace and him Daddy Grace when she's feeling spunky I can't imagine a different middle name for our family ; )

BUT if I could pick any last name, any name at all, I think I'd choose Tejada. I'm convinced it's the best last name in the world. Why? It just sounds good with anything. No, wait. It makes any name sound even better. Suzy Tejada? Well, that sounds all kinds of special to me. Does Jane sound plain to you? How about Jane Tejada? or Ethel Tejada. See? It's just better. And if all else failed you could just go by "Ms. Tejada." Say it with me, "Tay HA Duh!"(be sure to put the emphasis on HA).

There are any number of names I don't like. Leonard is not a name I like, but it wouldn't have stopped me from marrying one if his last name was Tejada. Or, you know, I really loved him. And I weren't already married to Gene.

Saturday

2009-11-08T14:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Game Day! Fayetteville had glorious weather perfectly suited for the football game.

I started the day with wet pants - Drew had put ice in the ice chest. All but one piece of ice. One piece was in my seat, partially melted. He thought it was pretty funny, and he was impressed with the speed with which I jumped back out of the van.

At the game, Lydia was thrilled to see our mascots. It's just like her relationship with Lulu - she loves them most from a distance. I happily pointed out the band as they marched in, and it must have been the first time she'd ever really paid any attention to them . She turned to me and asked, "Why do they have buckets on their heads?" Good question. I think it's to make them look taller.

We drove back home, and then it was on to our community group's chili cook off. I think sitting around the bonfire and eating s'mores was the best part.

The day ended the way it started : with me wearing wet pants. Yep. Lydia spilled raspberry lemonade in my lap, down my pants leg, and into my shoe, too.

Friday

2009-11-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

No post ON the day because I was so busy, and I didn't want to broadcast to the whole Blogaverse that I was going to be out of town.

The gentlemen installing the new windows and sliding doors arrived early to finish up the job. I needed to buy a new slow cooker/crockpot and the ingredients for my Southwestern white chili. I needed to do laundry, clean my van out, pack for me and Lydia, take Drew to work - well, it seemed like the list would NEVER end.

By the end of the day my feet, legs & back were so tired. My brain was, too. It was a great relief to be on the road and drift off to sleep as Gene drove us to Fayetteville. The transition from the van to the hotel room went pretty smoothly, too.

I'm not sure I like being QUITE that busy.

Sleep Interrupted

2009-11-05T21:00:00.000-08:00

I'm a bit of a night owl. Last night, though, I was sound asleep well before midnight. The phone started ringing at about 2 AM. I slept through it for a while because only the fax machine rings, and its ringer volume is quite low. So, the first time I tried to answer it, I missed the call. And THEN I was worried because you never get good news at 2 am.

The phone rang again, and I answered, "Hello? Hello? HELLO? HELLO???!!!" all the while I'm hearing an accented voice saying, "Hello, hello, hello," and what sounds like a bunch of chattering in the back ground. I hung up. Repeat this sequence of events several times, and Gene finally went into the computer room & unplugged the fax. Eventually, my adrenaline wore off, and I went back to sleep.

I had to get up early this morning because we just can't stop improving our house, and everyone who improves houses is apparently an early bird. I was tired ALL day long. I've got my second wind now that I've run on the treadmill, but I don't want any telemarketers with accents squawking at me after midnight.

Harder than it sounds

2009-11-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

Posting every day, even for a month, is harder than it sounds. What do I post about? That there was a ladybug in my van today? That I wish more people handed out chocolate at Halloween and fewer people handed out pure sugar even if it is fruit flavored? That the Phillies' bats let Cliff Lee's arm down & denied him his national championship? Maybe I'll just tell a few funny Lydia stories.

Last week as I was running around trying to find a pirate hat, Lydia was SO LOUD!!! I kept trying to get her to use an "inside voice", WHISPER, be quiet, SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I couldn't even use Google information because it kept hearing her chatter and would get confused and ask for the city and state over and over. Finally, I was on the road again, and Lydia was watching Dora. Dora was telling something or the other to open in Spanish - ABRE. Lydia kept saying HABLA (speak). I tried to correct her by saying ah and loudly stressing the BRAY. From the back seat I hear, "Don't scream, Mommy." Well, then.

glee

2009-11-03T21:10:00.000-08:00

I LOVE the new fox show, glee! If it were only the music, it'd be enough. It's so much more, though. The over the top characters and situations can make you laugh, grit your teeth, and almost cry with them as they take on a variety of situations. The writing is good, the acting is good, the music is sooooooooo goooooood! I hope you'll go get their new cd which came out today. Bonus: on December 8th, the second volume comes out. I can hardly wait. I ran to volume one tonight.

(November is blog month, and I'm trying to blog at least once/day. Just warning you...)

Secrets

2009-11-02T21:16:00.000-08:00

There's a certain company that makes underthings for women. The name of this establishment is a woman's name followed by Secret. Well, I think I know a few of their secrets. For instance: I think they have a conspiracy to make every woman at least a "C" - just to boost her self esteem if not her - well, never mind. I've gone up a size and I've neither gained nor lost weight. In fact, I think the only thing that has changed is their sizing system. But, hey. I've been wrong before - and that's not a secret.

Halloween 2009

2009-10-31T19:48:00.000-07:00

Whew. There were no trips to the pumpkin patch for us this year. The weather and scheduling conflicts kept us away - good thing we went twice last year. We did attend our first Halloween party last night. We did not carve a pumpkin, but Lydia decorated no less than 3 of the little ones with stickers. I never found the time to bake any special cookies for the occasion. I barely managed to throw her costume together.

And yet, I have enjoyed this Halloween more than I ever remember having enjoyed one before. The Suzy Homemaker in me would love to go all Martha Stewart and have the perfect Southern Living home during this season, but who really has the time for that?!

Our fall temperatures have felt like fall. Our leaves have been colorful. I had friends and family over last weekend for Southwest white chili and Halloween Oreo cheesecake cupcakes. It was good enough even if it probably wouldn't have been picture perfect by magazine standards.

And I doubt that I even had as much fun trick or treating when I was little as I did tonight with Lydia. Last year we were in Fayetteville for a ball game so we joined about one thousand other kids at the mall for trick or treating. This year, Lydia and I went door to door on a moderately chilly night, and it just gave me such a thrill to watch her ring doorbells and hear her say, "Trick or Treat!" and then, "Mommy! I want some more candy. Can we go to one more house?" Equally thrilling was, "Mommy!!! Look at the moon!" And I had a moment when I was worried that a young man's mask was going to freak her out, but in true Lydia style she stopped, looked him over, and said, "I like your outfit."

Fall has never been my favorite time of year. I like summer and summer vacation. This year, though, fall has been really good, and I think I might learn to love fall if more of them turn out like this one.

Let's play a little game

2009-10-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Something along the lines of 20 questions, but I probably won't ask that many. And there's no pressure, you don't have to fill anything out, forward anything. Just humor me and play along:

1.Have you ever thought you had your child's Halloween costume planned out and that it'd only take 30 minutes or so to do? I have. Monday night I very emphatically stated that Lydia was going to be a cowgirl when I was asked.
2. Have you ever changed your mind? I did. We were invited to a party that was happening tonight on, oh, Tuesday. My friend, Lulu, was singing with her co-worker's band (Hard Corps - cause they work for the Corps of Engineers), and THEY were dressing up as pirates. So, when I went to buy a pattern for a western skirt and vest but found a really COOL pirate pattern I changed my mind. It's a woman's perogative, isn't it?
3.Have you ever assumed that because you make a lovely pillowcase dress that you could surely make a jacket WITH LONG SLEEVES even though you've never done it before, or to make it a little more general: bitten off more than you could chew? That darned pattern, at times, might as well have been written in Chinese characters by a calico cat for all the meaning I was getting out of them.
4. Have you ever SERIOUSLY misjudged how much time something was going to take? I had a plan. It was a decent plan: buy a simple pattern, prepare a simple costume. I deviated from the original plan & formulated a new one: cut the material 1st night, sew 2nd & 3rd night & finish up on Friday while Lydia naps. Ya'll. I was up until 3 am (yeah AM) this morning sewing. And unsewing.
5.Have you ever been so tired you made a really HUGE mistake that nearly erased everything you'd stayed up to accomplish? I was trimming/cleaning up the shoulder/sleeve seam and I cut a hole in the sleeve. I thought about taking the sleeve off & re-doing it.
5.5 Have you ever remembered something someone told you& suddenly, in stressful moment recalled their wonderful advice? Rowena has a blog called Done is Better than Perfect. And a lady I met Wednesday said, "Who can tell it's not perfect on a galloping horse?" I went to bed resolved to find a patch for the hole & not sweat it. It's a Halloween costume to be worn once or twice. I wasn't creating a family heirloom for goodness sake.
6.Have you ever been so tired you couldn't sleep? I don't know if it was because I was so tired or because I was wondering how on earth I'd finish the costume or because my sleep cycle was so disrupted, but I did not just drift off like usual.
7. Have you ever thought your life would be simplified by not having pets? At 4:30 AM! the dogs started barking. It was pouring rain, but someone just had to go out. And Friday-Sunday mornings the dogs are my responsibility. Can't tell you how much I loved my dogs at that particular moment...
8. Have you, at the last moment, had to safety pin things together, buckle your child in, and dash off without fixing her hair? Well. I think that's pretty self explantory. She did have her boots on. I even managed to dust some powder on my face & apply lipstick before I left. Thank God for Gene. He did the actual safety pinning. And I put her hair up in braided pigtails upon our arrival.
9. Have you EVER had a moment of pride when all that paid off? Lydia was the cutest little pirate EVER. And there were several pirates in attendance. Lydia's costume won 1st prize for her age group!!! And she just had a blast at the party. She danced, she played games, she hung out with others. And she looked so darned cute while she did all that. I'll have to share pictures later cause it's late again, and I'm tired. But it's a happy tired ; ) ARRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Something I never thought I'd need to say

2009-10-20T22:13:00.000-07:00

"No!!!! Don't put your toothbrush in the toilet!!!" Ewwww, just the thought makes me want to go without brushing for a very long time.

In other news: I am an idiot. I did the most boneheaded thing today, and I've decided that I need to pay a little more attention to detail.

I was driving from point A to point B this afternoon around 3pm. I needed to get onto an access road and there was a stream of cars going on forever. I thought, "How rude. If they'd just get in the other lane, people could easily get onto the access road, but noooooooooooo." Can you imagine? It was as if every student from the school district lived somewhere off the service road and they'd all been turned loose at the exact same time. Then I saw one lone car with its turn indicator flashing, and I made my move.

Thinking that I'd be considerate, I moved into the other lane so others could turn in, too. No one else took advantage of that, though. The other lane of traffic continued on at a slower than the limit pace, and I saw flashing lights ahead. And they all proceeded to turn at the same place. And it finally dawned on me.

It was a funeral procession, and I had cut through it. I'm not sure about the funeral procession etiquette where you're from, but here I'd committed a serious breach. I immediately thought, "WHO has a funeral at 3 pm on Tuesday?" and "I didn't notice their headlights were on because I was looking back into the setting sun." It hardly matters, though. I wish I hadn't been in such a hurry so I could have been more considerate and respectful to those who'd recently lost someone about whom they cared.

Happy Game Day!

2009-10-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

I don't think I mentioned how chilly it was. The last few years it has been fairly warm for all of our home games. This year fall came early, and brrrrrrrrrr! Here's Lydia with her new pompoms & Lulu & Uncle K.
And here she is watching Dora. You can see how engrossed she is.

SOUTHERN China

2009-10-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

It was supposed to be the weekend my community group went camping, but God intervened. It rained. And rained. AND RAINED some more. We'd already given our Razorback tickets away, but we got more (because God and Gene knew how much I really wanted to go to the Auburn game).

Last week I was telling Lydia that we were going to sleep in a tent, and she'd get to take her nap in a tent. She was quite excited about all this, and she mentioned the tent many times over the course of the week. So what did we do?

Gene figured that we might as well go up Friday night if we could get a room in a hotel with an indoor pool. Lydia was delighted at the prospect of swimming, and no mention was made of the tent or cancelled camping trip. In fact, as we were driving up to Fayetteville, I told Lydia she better take her nap in the van so we could go swimming as soon as we got checked in to the hotel. That little minx closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.

She didn't sleep long, and she woke with the words, "Are we at the Hoe Tay Ul yet?" It was so funny to me that I used every method I could think of to get her to say her deep fried version of "hotel". Yep, she's from Southern China.

The people around us at the game were quite amused to see her sitting with her DVD player. I've never loved Dora more than I did today. Oh! And the Hogs did us proud today, too! I'll post pics when I get home - I don't have the cord to do it on my netbook.

Just like Forrest Gump

2009-10-07T21:50:00.000-07:00

I was run-ning. Really. I ran two and a quarter miles on the treadmill tonight (I spelled it out so it would look longer). I burned about 98 fat calories and a gazillion calories overall (or maybe a little less, I like to round up on the overalls). Me. Can you even imagine? I can hardly believe it myself. I was convinced that running was a last resort activity done only in life threatening situations or when you might miss your flight.

Oh, sure. Other people are shown doing it on tv, but they show people fighting aliens, vampires, and cartoons, too. And my DH gets up early and slinks off while it's still dark to "run", but how would I know that's what he really did? Those smelly running shoes, shorts, & shirts could have acquired that odor any number of ways, and I'm too lazy to seek any real proof. And ok, there are bursts of speed on a football field and baseball diamond, but those aren't all that long. But really, running? Wouldn't that hurt?

It turned out that even after you are old enough to adopt from China, you can START running for the very first time in your life, and it probably won't hurt too much. I suggest the treadmill where the terrain is remarkably the same unless you are silly enough to press a button to increase the incline or outright crazy and program said treadmill to change the incline and speed at varying intervals. I am not so inclined. I'm from Texas, and I like straight and flat.

Next, I suggest you add some form of entertainment. I have a television with many, many channels. None of them are very interesting or easy to watch while I am running. Ok, the food channels are always appealing to me, but it seems counterproductive to watch people preparing food (unless it's fish which I won't eat unless I am about to starve to death and the dirt tastes worse than I thought dirt would taste) while I exercise. So, I watch/listen to 80's music, 90's music, or 70's music on a music channel. It's quite motivational, and I don't think about being old while I'm running. I'm just so darned proud of myself when I'm running that being overweight or past 29 (don't worry how far past) don't even cross my mind.

I'll admit I was sore after I began running. I was impulsive, and I started without any regard for the fact that I'd be riding in a car for several hours the next day.I was sore that day. And the day after that? Ouch. But I ran again that night, and I felt better. Hair of the dog that bit me, I guess.

As with any new endeavor there is shopping that has to be done. After one week, I was off to VS to buy a sports bra with maximum support. It ain't pretty, but it does do a better job than the one I had been wearing. I'll need new shoes. About a year before I went to China, Gene bought me a lovely pair of Saucony's. They were so comfy. I wore them, but unless I was chasing a toddler I don't think I ever ran in them. If I keep this up, I think I'll buy another pair. Oh, and yesterday at T@rget I bought a sleeveless bright pink top. And that top? It is FAST. And it has extra endurance built in somehow. Because I went a whole extra quarter mile in the same it took me to do two miles wearing a white tshirt with sleeves.

Finally done sweating now. I think I'll rinse off & go to bed. TTFN.

Anything but normal

2009-10-04T20:29:00.000-07:00

I wasn't able to celebrate the Moon Festival yesterday. I had a funeral to attend which would be bad enough under "normal" circumstances, but this funeral was more painful than most even though I'd only met the deceased once or twice. He was 15 years old. Fifteen. And he was the only child of a mother who was raising him by herself. Feel free to grab your tissues. I needed a bunch.

How I wish this sort of thing never happened to anyone, let alone people I've met. Daniel was my nephew's best friend, a good Christian who was very involved in his church, a boyscout, a tuba player, and a much loved son. There aren't really any words to make this better, are there? I hope you'll say a prayer for Daniel's mother, Emily. While I know she's not alone (she is a wonderful Christian lady who was instrumental in Daniel's having become such a good young man), she may feel very isolated and lonely.

I've only been to the funeral of one other child, and I really hope I never need to attend another one. It feels like it goes against every natural thing for a child to die before his or her parents. I know there is hope for Daniel because of Jesus but hopeful is not how I would describe my state of mind as I left his funeral yesterday. Today, at least, I have a little more peace.

Sharing is caring

2009-09-12T20:57:00.001-07:00

If you've never had a mammogram before, the following may help you out. If you have, why didn't you share your knowledge with me, hmmm? Or why didn't the lady who told me to be there 30 minutes early?

1) Don't schedule one for Friday, this will become clear later.

2) I was greeted by a tech who said, "I'm ready for you. Are you wearing deodorant?" I was offended at first and nearly answered tartly with, "Yes. And I brushed my teeth, too." I always wear deodorant. It turns out you're not supposed to for a mammogram. They had wipes to remove it so I was good on that score.

3) I was given the most ridiculous almost a poncho drape to wear. Well, this is a stupid joke. Why don't they just have us remove our top IN the room with the machine & just lock the door? Fumbling around with that when the tech had already seen 1/2 of me, then the other 1/2 and back to the 1st half was just silly. I'm not really worried that she's going to be comparing the left half to the right. I was more concerned about what someone could see in a side view (there are no side seams to the "poncho") as I crossed from the dressing room to the room with the machine.

4)They will want to know if you have any moles. If you do, they have a charming little sticker that will go around the mole. And there are things that look like bandaids to cover your n i p p l e.

Not to worry, though, these are very decorative and you will feel positively overdressed once they are on.

5)If your hair is long enough to put in a ponytail, put it in a ponytail. The only PHYSICAL discomfort I felt was when a strand of hair got caught in the machine.

6) Do not worry that the part of your anatomy they are examining will fall off the machine. It will, if fact, almost stick to it like glue. Very weird, but not painful.

7)Many personal questions will be asked. Like when was your first period? Has anyone in your family had breast cancer? How many children do you have? How old were you when you gave birth? Have you had a hysterectomy? Would you prefer paper or plastic? Ok, not the last one, but don't go in there with your brain in neutral. Because I totally did. Not sure why, but you know, past experience is that history taking was all done on a form BEFORE I met someone face to face who was about to see me without my shirt on and put part of my anatomy in clamp and mash down.

8)If they have the same equipment my hospital had & it is your baseline mammogram, you probably will barely notice any pressure at all. Seriously, it was NOT painful.

9)Once you are finished & you're fumbling with the tie in the front almost-a-poncho so you can go back to the dressing room, the tech will probably say, "Your doctor will get the results tomorrow, and you'll get a card in the mail in 5-7 days. " Unless you are like me & do this on Friday. In which case the results will go to your doctor on Monday. And that will be fine. Until the tech says, "Since it's your baseline, they may have you come back if they see anything unusual, blah blah blah." And if you've put your brain in neutral like I did you'll walk out happy as a clam once your clothes are back on with your most serious concern being, "I wish I'd brought deodorant with me." And congratulating yourself for doing something good for your health while saying, "That wasn't so bad."

UNTIL your brain which is finally shifting into gear goes, "Huh? What did she mean if they see anything unusual. Did SHE see something? Does she say that to EVERYONE? Or just me? Because she saw something? And NOW I have to wait until MONDAY." Rather inconvenient when you've already left the office...

So, don't schedule your mammogram for Friday unless you can just turn it over to God since you're not going to hear anything before Monday anyway. Which is what I did, and I slept fine last night,thanks for asking. And really, I don't want to hear from them on Monday, either. I want a card in the mail saying, "Things look great. See you in a couple of years."

HELP! S.O.S.

2009-08-09T19:37:00.000-07:00

First, I'm going to ask for prayers. Pray for whatever you think is appropriate after (or while) reading this post. Second, I'm throwing in some exaggeration, some fiction, some hyperbole to get my point across (and quite possibly to protect the not so innocent).

Sunday morning. Sunday is good. Church is good. Sunday morning when I know I'm watching the toddler room? Ughhhhhhhh. God, please give me strength.

I so desperately want to serve with a joyful heart. I DO! I love kids. I LOVE my kid, and I know she's not perfect (can be a big hand full, as a matter of fact). I don't expect perfection. Why is this so hard?

For starters: they are toddlers. An explanation isn't necessary, but I'm going to give an illustration. Little Boy#1 dumps large bin of a million small blocks when I'm mere centimeters from stopping him. Little Boy #2 unlocks the door to the deck and is almost out the door but how is that possible when he is was just behind my back turning on the dvd player? Boy #2 has some serious ninja skills, ya'll, he was in two places at the same time. Meanwhile, Girl #1 declares she has to go potty which convinces Lydia that she, too, simply MUST go potty. Right now.

So, I have no help, and I can't let them go by themselves or leave the others unsupervised. I look over the half door for help. No one in sight. The two ladies who oversee the 3 year olds didn't show so the coordinator is in that room and can't help. The nursery folks have taken babies over for the baby dedication, but praise be! I see one walking up, flag this person down to watch those who don't need to pee while I watch the 2 who do. Once I've the 2 girls are washing their hands, Ninja boy decides he, too, needs to use the bathroom.

Nursery worker #2 comes back with a baby and asks who wants to come out for praise and worship. All five of my little angels flock into the center area where they begin to try to slide into another class room from the central area(there is a "secret" slide), deface the big tree and uproot flowers that are part of the decor (impressive papier mache tree that is life size), run into other rooms, take off their shoes, and do anything BUT dance and sing (ok one or two at a time might have sung or danced for a few seconds).

It is pandemonium. They are wild, untamed little creatures, and I am about to lose my mind. Herding cats. Nailing JellO to a tree. These things would seem simple when compared to shepherding my little flock.

After praise and worship, it's snack time. I tell them we'll have our snack after we clean up. I call them by name, assign a clean up duty, I even have them counting objects as they clean up. Once the chaos is contained, I start handing out napkins. Then crackers and cookies. Then still more crackers. Because they were sort of still at this point and mercifully sort of quiet. You can't keep em that way forever, though, so I thought I'd let them play only with the big toys that didn't have to be taken out of bins.

And that's when things went seriously downhill. Sharing is beyond two of the children at that point. Particularly for my beloved daughter who is more or less an only child. So I had to take the beadchaser away and put it in time out. My daughter began to BAWL. She was crying real tears, and she was LOUD. What sort of evil, twisted woman makes a child cry in Sunday school?

I see my husband walking up, and a shimmering hope rises in my heart that I am nearly DONE. He sees her crying, looks at me,and I can tell he's a bit puzzled but sort of amused. I HISS, "Get her and get out of here!!!" so know one else will witness my failure as a mother and FSK volunteer. And then someone comes and takes two more away. And when I'm down to just one and I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel, Ninja boy says he needs to go pee again. So, I stand discreetly beside the door but not actually looking at him. I began to feel puzzled that he's taking so long so I peek in to see him YANKING ON THE PIPE TO THE URINAL. Holy COW. We don't need a flood to illustrate Old Testament stories, kid. At this point, I had very nearly lost my religion. My sanity was a thing of the past. I was so hot that I remembered the term "spontaneous combustion" and knew that it was only one hundreth of a degree away from happening to my face. And wouldn't that be nice at church? Cause nothing says, "I'm a Christian" quite like a flaming skull, does it?

How could this have been avoided? And that evil little demon sitting on your shoulder that whispered, "You could have stayed in bed!" Tweak that mean spirited little devil's nose. That's not the correct answer. When I went into to second service and noticed the digital box (like the "Now serving # " at the DMV) that we use to summon parents, the same little demon said, "Next time, you can just put all their kids' numbers up there when things head south." And that really was an almost funny thought, but I don't know where they hide that panic button, and it's not the right answer any way.

The right answer is that we need more volunteers, and those volunteers need to either show up when scheduled or find someone to take fill the empty spots. IF everyone who had a child volunteered, I don't think there would be a shortage. We could have two people in the toddler room so one could supervise the children using the potty while the other kept the remaining children at least in the same room.

God hasn't asked everyone to go to Africa, Asia, or South America to be a missionary. You can serve Him right here at home by being His messenger to His children right now. You don't need a passport, you probably won't catch any exotic disease, and even if you don't fit your mental image of a shepherd, you might start some little souls down the path to salvation. And if nothing else, you may save my sanity.

Two Year Anniversary

2009-08-07T19:28:00.000-07:00

2007
2008
2009
Who knows what the next year will bring? What I do know is that the last two have been just about the best two years of my life. Love you, Lydia!

Woo PIG Suzy

2009-08-02T19:32:00.000-07:00

This is the post where you begin to wonder if the name of my blog comes from my love of the Razorbacks or of food. And let me confess that it began as a reference to my status as a Razorback fan and how Suzy sounds quite like the Sooooie in the middle of WooooooooooPIGSoooooie! when we call the Hogs.

But HOLY MOLY do I love me some Food Network. I mentioned my affection for DriveIns, Diners & Dives before. It makes me want to hop into the convertible and tour the country. (Which reminds me that I MUST find a way to get a carseat in there for Lydia).

I'm watching The Best Thing I Ever Ate right now about desserts. Heaven HELP ME, PLEASE. I am giddy watching this show. They use words like "To Die For" and Chef Michael Symon just put away THREE toasted marshmallow shakes. It would kill me. But I think I'd die a very, very happy woman. Or I'd never want to see another milk shake again. EVER. Or at least for a day. And the guilt that the wii would make me feel as I stepped on it? The shame. The degradation.

It might actually be worth it.

I may have to block this channel if I'm ever going to lose weight. Even the Good Eats episode about toast made me get up to make toast (who doesn't have bread - even stale bread- in her kitchen plus a toaster????). C'mon, Food Network, have mercy!!! Why don't you take a cue from Shark Week and do a month of seafood? Focus on Fungus for a week? Spend some time on making the perfect broccoli and cauliflower? I'm sure I could lose weight if you did. I may just have to go back to China in the summer. I lost ten pounds in about 2.5 weeks. That was before I knew about the Food Network. Surely they don't have Food Network in China. (Please God, keep the Western Devils from Food Network out of China. I need a safe place).

BIG night on the town

2009-07-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Right around Mother's Day, Gene very generously gave me FOUR tickets to see the Top 10 American Idol contestants on tour. He had one condition: I couldn't make him go because he had a date with Lydia at ChickFilA. So, Lisa, her sister, her sister's best friend, and I were going together.

If I've not said it before, I'll own up to it now: I am NOT a very girly girl. Gene told me that one time, and I was crushed. I'm not even sure why it bothered me since it was so true. Ok, maybe I am a girly girl but I'm low maintenance? In any case, I was going OUT for the first time in a very long time, and I wanted to look nice. If it had been me and Gene, I'd have worn jeans and a newer tshirt and thought I looked fine.

But it wasn't. It was me and 3 other women. One of whom I KNOW is an all out girly girl, and I had reason to suspect the other two would be, too. I set out to make myself presentable.

With more planning than I'd have ever dreamed necessary, I managed to get my haircut for the first time in probably 6 months on Wednesday. I had my toenails painted (pedicure had happened a few weeks ago) and a manicure. As I left the nail salon, I was counting the minutes I had left to curl my hair, put on make up, and throw together an outfit. I WISHED my hair was more humidity resistant. I wished I were skinnier so I could confidently wear a cute tank top with cropped jeans, flip flops, and some (impossible for me to even imagine) hip accessories. I didn't want (ok, that's a lie I did want to) wear my tennis shoes - I wanted to wear cute shoes to shoe off my beautiful toes!

In the end, I wore khaki capris with shoes that did allow my toes to show. I got blisters. I curled my hair. I sprayed my hair. Gene came in from mowing the lawn and took a shower. My hair began to wilt. My pal, Lisa? She did wear the cute tank top with jeans and cute shoes plus fashionable earrings. Oh. And her hair is never flat. The other two? They were pretty hip, too - plus the hip accessories. PLUS hair with volume. Did I mention my hair went flat?

When I showed dogs, I got up EARLY on Saturday morning. I showered, fixed my hair, put on makeup, sort of dressy shoes, pantyhose, and jewelry and often got to the show by 8am WITH a dog or 3. I am exhausted now just typing all that. I am so out of practise that it wore me out to do this in a whole day.

I need help. But please don't send Stacie and Clinton. I don't think I could bear the shame.

We went to Macaroni Grill to eat then we were off to the concert. I highly recommend the concert. Bottom to top they were all very VERY talented and fun to watch. Scott was the unexpected hit for me. He is so talented, he was very funny, and I thought he'd improved vocally (his instrumental talent was already incredible) since leaving the competition. Everyone was well received, and Danny G. was quite inspirational.

Adam had everyone on their feet, and no one sat down during Kris's performance. I think he really demonstrated why he was eventually chosen as this year's American Idol.

I think I've rambled enough for now. I'll blog about the Daddy Date another time.

After the Party

2009-07-12T12:28:00.000-07:00

Addison's Birthday Bash

2009-07-11T19:52:00.000-07:00

We were invited to Addison's birthday part, and we had such a fantastic time! The little ones arrived in swimwear to play on the slip and slide, splash through sprinklers, play at the water table, and fish in a tub of water. Many of them decided to play in the sand box, slide and swing. It's pretty obvious that a fun time was had by all.

Later, we went inside, changed into dry clothes, decorated cookies, ate hot dogs, and sang Happy Birthday. Lydia and I had to leave before Addison opened her presents, but we sure hope Addison enjoyed her special day and all the gifts she received.

I usually plan my own birthday to do whatever I feel like doing, but after today, I want Gina to plan my party... Thanks for having us, Gina, Grant, & Addison!

Finally!

2009-06-28T22:35:00.000-07:00

After many prayers, bad weather, a flat tire, a trim motor that gave up the ghost, we FINALLY made it to the lake, into the water, and off the trailer. Wooooohoooooooo! Last year and the year before, Lydia wasn't too sure about the boat or the water. This year, she couldn't wait to get into the water, and I was afraid she'd squirm out of my lap before we left the no wake zone. I told her to sit still because we were about to go, "Super Fast!" Once the pace picked up, she was ALL smiles and perfectly content to sit in my lap, enjoying the breeze on her face. In fact, we had a hard time convincing her to swim as she was demanding that we go, "SUPER FAST!" again. She even rode on one of the towables with me and Drew. I think she's going to be quite the little water bug.

Rainbow after all the rain

2009-06-10T08:44:00.000-07:00

The rain finally stopped, our house is FINALLY painted, and we've been busy getting ready for the Rainbow. Our socks are never going to be as white, the floor will have to be slept and mopped with increased frequency, we'll sweat more, laundry is going to be a marathon event and the mosquitoes are rejoicing and preparing for a very good year:

Why does she have to use everything in an unconventional way? Is it just because she's 2?
Life is good right now~

Then and Now

2009-05-30T22:02:00.000-07:00

We visited Garvin Woodland Gardens on Saturday, and I thought it would be fun to post pictures from last year and this year. It was MUCH more challenging to get pictures of Lydia this year, and it was quite a bit hotter end of May 2009 than it was April 2008. The flowers were different, too, but still so beautiful!

Final pics from Friday

2009-05-16T20:15:00.000-07:00

Shanny has PhoBloggy Days a few times/year. Go check out what others do with their day! Also, scroll down to see the BEGINNING of the weekend. Calling the Hogs. Drew is in the black hat.
Our National Anthem. It still gives me goosebumps to hear it sung at sporting events - even on tv.
Honoring officers killed in the line of duty.
Our family tradition: Fireworks Night at Baum Stadium! We were up late, late, late for Lydia, but she was VERY good through out the game and the fireworks following the game.

More Friday PhoBloggyDays

2009-05-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

Warming up before the game. Perhaps should have spent more time like this:

Obviously displeased with THAT call. You tell 'em, Lydia.

Spring Phobloggy Days Early Friday

2009-05-16T19:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I missed breakfast at ChickFil@. And walking through the pet store, and shopping at Old N@vy. I did however get pictures of Lydia in her new Razorback swimsuit in our hotel room and the hot tub which was an oxymoron because it was neither hot nor a tub. It had plenty of bubbles, though.

Lunch at Friday's. The bottom 2 pics were taken on Drew's cell phone. I am impressed.

I am in T R O U B L E

2009-05-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

Lydia can be a little, how to put it delicately? BOSSY. And her voice? LOUD. And her mommy?She can, at times, ignore those two traits so Lydia won't think they are successful strategies to accomplish her goals. I was employing my ability to turn a deaf ear to her demands when I got a very stern,
"Mommy GRACE!"
LOL.
That's not even MY middle name.

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T20:27:00.000-07:00

Today, I remember a woman half a world away. I'm not sure if this day is any different for her than yesterday or the string of yesterdays that have happened since she gave birth to Lydia a little over two and a half years ago, but I think of her today. I am limited in my ability to imagine what her life may be like, what she may have felt or be feeling about Lydia, and I am unlikely to ever meet her. I am, however, in her debt, and the only way I know to partially repay that debt is to love Lydia with all my heart, to pray for God's guidance in raising her, and to remember. May God bless her.

Big Branson Vacation

2009-04-28T10:54:00.000-07:00

Things you need to know before you go to Silver Dollar City:
1.Bring your stroller - it'll be handy for carrying STUFF even if your child is perfectly well mannered and holds your hand while standing beside you and gazing adoringly at her mama and daddy. It'll cost you $11 and a long wait in line if you don't follow my advice.

2. Your child must be 36 inches tall to ride ANY ride except the train. If you're inclined to test this rule you might try a great big hair bow right on top of your lovely's head. Big hair will simply wilt in the humidity. Yes. Even in April.

3. Pay ahead of time for the Show Lover's pass. Or stand in line for over an hour to get a crummy seat. Bonus of the Show Lover's pass (aside from no waiting and really great seats?) is that the acrobats will fly right over your head!

4. If you can POSSIBLY swing it: go on a week day. Wednesday is probably the best day, but for sure do not go on a weekend. There were over 14,000 people there. Yes. In April.

5. Take the lens cap off your camera a long, long time before you want a picture. It's just like China in August: the lens will fog up. Just so you know.

6. Be prepared to have a really, really great time. Because even with the crowd, humidity, etc., your child is going to love it. Look at Lydia's face where she's riding the frog - I know it's blurry, but you can see how much fun she's having.

Other fun we had in Branson: The Dixie Stampede. Lydia simply LOVED it. She thought the horses were great, the soup was great, getting to clap and yell, and stomp it was all GREAT. No forks or spoons for eating? That was just a bonus.

Swimming/floating in the indoor pool: loads of fun even if she was a bit hesitant at first. She was eventually blowing bubbles and kicking which is good since we have season passes to the water park closest to us.

Branson Landing: shopping - ok. Macaroni Grill outdoor dining with a view of the lake - pretty good. Build A Bear - maybe a little overwhelming at 2.5 years old, but so worth it to hear her explaining to Drew this morning, "This is my Panda Bear, LingLing!"

So, all in all a really good 4 day weekend get away! Thanks for making it happen, Gene, and thanks to Mary and Jim for letting us use the time share.

Good Fences vs Good Neighbors

2009-04-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

Drew let the dogs out, and about 10 minutes later, he was going to put them into their runs. PANIC!!! One of our gates had been left open by the painter who is repainting our house. Hope, who is our usual escape artist, was lying on the front porch. The boys were all inside the fence. Mamie was gone.

I was about to leave for work, but I dropped everything to search for Mamie. I'd no sooner walked up the driveway than a Jeep Cherokee pulled in with Mamie riding in the driver's lap. This young man said, "I saw her running loose, and I knew you had this breed of dog." I've never seen this young man before, but I don't think I can ever thank him enough. And while that poetic line from Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," that Good fences make good neighbors may be true some of the time, I was so grateful for the even better neighbor who helped me out when the fence failed to keep my dog safely inside the yard.

Easter Egg Hunting

2009-04-05T15:09:00.000-07:00

It was a REALLY tall slide, but Lydia wasn't scared.

Dancing before the hunting.
It's a target rich environment. I think she got her limit.

Hey! Over here!

2009-03-30T11:14:00.000-07:00

I'm the sort of person who prays off and on all day (so take that! There was prayer in public school!). And I make a concentrated effort to seriously pray before I go to sleep at night - it's when my mind is usually at its most focused. Now, all of that is not said for you to respond, "Good for YOU, Suzy. You're a good girl." Nope. It's just a bit of background info.

THIS morning I decided to pray for my day before I ever left my soft, comfy bed. And it must have been like waving a red flag in front of a bull to Satan or taping a "Kick Me!" sign of my back. How did he respond?

Lydia woke up in a FOUL mood, and this lead to an exponential increase in the amount of time it took to get out the door this morning. Why would this matter so much on Monday? I have a Bible study group Monday morning, and I REFUSE TO MISS IT. I'd done my homework, and I was determined to go.

Next, my short cut was barricaded this morning. Ok, it had happened last week, but it was open again at the end of the week so I thought it had been fixed. Thanks to that little detour, I had to back track. I finally made it to the sitter's house at the time our group begins. I was, at that point, officially late.

But, I did make it. And God? He was looking out for me. He played Mark Harris's "One True God" on the radio for me. And don't think the lyrics, "I don't have a care that I carry alone," didn't resonate with me while I was struggling to get to my Bible study. He knew I needed to be there, and He got me there. When I got there? That God, He just knows me and loves me just how I need to be loved! He saved me the last as in VERY last piece of quiche and some mandarin oranges. Thanks so much for getting me there, God, for loving me, and providing for me and for pushing Satan out of the way. Who knows how awful this morning would have been without that prayer?

Spread the Good Word

2009-03-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

I just found the neatest tshirts! They are at Wild Olive Tees - go check them out. Free shipping is available through the end of the month. I am so excited about them because as I was reading them I would think, "Oh! That would be perfect for Holly! And that one has Lisa written all over it!" I think I'm going to get one to give away at my Women's Ministry prayer group. I hope it gets here by next Saturday.

I tried to talk her into the $9 tricycle...

2009-03-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

but when she laid eyes on the slightly less eco-friendly electric Jeep, all bets were off. Who could resist a pink Jeep? And really, Mom, how practical is a trike where we live any way? Can you go off road with a trike? And seriously, even in this economy, where else could I get a deal like this besides the Duck, Duck, Goose consignment spring sale?
Can't you just feel her joy? We stay very close (and, shhhh! we keep it in the turtle gear vs. the rabbit) so we can help steer away from trees and push when the wheels start to spin. She just pushes the pedal harder when it's spinning its wheel from lack of traction - doesn't work, but it's fun to watch. I didn't really buy it as work out equipment for myself, but it sure got my heart rate up as I hiked along behind her, jogging to her rescue when she was about to hit something or when she needed a push.

It was a good day! AND the Hogs won their baseball game!!!

A matter of trust

2009-03-05T19:34:00.000-08:00

Call me gullible if you want, but I've always been a rather trusting sort of person. For instance, my father was a salesman who often times bought something from his customers. On one particular occasion, he brought home a yellow and white bicycle with the most BEAUTIFUL white basket complete with yellow and white daisies. It was some kind of special. It was a John Deere. This bicycle was clearly meant to be mine. My brother wouldn't have wanted it, and it was a big girl bike so it couldn't have possibly been my younger sister's. No, this glorious creation had to be mine.

Never mind that it didn't have training wheels. My daddy said he'd teach me how to ride without those infantile 4th and 5th wheels. And so he did. He ran along behind me on the side walk, he'd let go for brief periods, grab hold to correct any losses of balance I experienced, then repeat that cycle. I had not a care in the world because there was no way my daddy was going to let me down. If he said I could do it, I could do it.

And, of course, I could ride it without training wheels when he let go. I was doing a fantastic job of riding down that lovely, straight sidewalk. UNTIL

Until I was running out of sidewalk and needed to stop. And there was no one holding onto the back of the bike. Well, of course, you just pedal backward to activate the brakes, right? Ok, I did that. I had a big problem: the bike was too big for me to reach the ground with my butt on the seat. And still, I wasn't worried because there was the most beautiful, soft green grass I would just fall into.

Only it wasn't that soft, and I broke my arm. Unlike my buddy Tonggu Momma, though, I don't remember it hurting much - although I'm sure it must have. What I do remember is how angry my mother was with my father for allowing it to happen and how I got to spend a couple of hours with her during my trip to the ER ALL BY MYSELF. And quality time alone with my mom? Well, it was worth breaking my arm.

Did I learn anything from that experience? Of course I did! I learned that I had to get off the seat to put my foot down when I needed to stop the bike. It wasn't until I was a grown woman that it ever occurred to me that my dad should have seen that the bike was too big for me or that I'd likely hurt myself trying to ride it.

Red Envelopes

2009-03-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

I hope you'll take a few moments to read about the Red Envelope Project, and then I hope you'll feel compelled to send one off.

Ramblings and a Giveaway alert

2009-02-19T20:22:00.000-08:00

I have been having some pretty bi-polar days lately. Some days I really, really wish I was a stay at home mom full time. Other days, I think I am so lucky to have my dream job of just doing home health therapy part time. I guess it's not really bipolar when the reality is that I think I'd PREFER to be a full time SAHM, but since I'm not, I have the best possible job if I have to work outside my home. And some days, I just feel lucky to have a job when I hear about how many people have lost jobs. In fact, on those days, I realize that it's a blessing to have enough regardless of how hard (or easy) it is to come by.

OH!!! And I checked ASIA's waiting child list tonight, and the little girl Gene, Lydia, and I have been praying for is being adopted! Hooray! Felicity is going to have a mom and dad (even if I never know who they are, I am so grateful that they are going to be her family)!!! God does answer prayers.

And finally, go HERE to enter a giveaway for a really neat shirt.

What would YOU do?

2009-02-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

I had two patients to see today. And it was BEAUTIFUL outside. Lydia just loves to be outside, and I was wondering what would be the best way to appreciate this February day considering the glorious sunshine and higher than 70 degree temperatures after I saw those two patients? A trip to the zoo seemed like a pretty good idea. Surely, it wouldn't be too crowded, and we might see animals we wouldn't be as likely to see once it got hotter.

It wasn't crowded, and we didn't have to wait in line to ride the train (which Lydia LOVED). So, I don't know what you'd do with a fantastic sunny February day, but that's what I did with mine. Oh, and as bonus? Drew got to come, too, since he didn't have class today and didn't work until after 5pm. Two years ago, I'd have been working with no flexibility to take off to enjoy a day like today just because it was so nice. I wouldn't have thought of going to the zoo even if I had been off, but that's one of the great things about having a young child. Your horizons get a lot wider!

No Catchy Title

2009-02-07T20:45:00.001-08:00

And the post doesn't really have anything to do with the pictures. I just know most of us want to see pictures, and I haven't posted any recently. These were taken on our upper deck today while Lydia and I enjoyed the absolutely wonderful weather.
Gene's mother was in the hospital last week because she stopped walking. After all sorts of tests, consults, and therapy, we still don't know why, and she's still not walking. She asked to go to a nursing home, and we honored her request. Lydia calls the nursing home MeeMa's new house.
On a happier note, (Gene probably isn't any happier since he thinks we spent way too much money - he has no real appreciation of how much groceries cost sometimes), we went to Walmart where I encountered a former co-worker, a former patient I treated while waiting for Lydia's referral, and my optometrist (he was pushing two very CUTE little girls in his cart). It was so nice to see Gina, the former co-worker! She was skinnier and prettier than ever. I think having kids does that for some people.
And I'll close by asking for your prayers for my MIL, Gene, and a little girl in China we call Felicity (she's not mine and she REALLY needs a mom and dad).

Ever wanted to go to China?

2009-02-06T15:27:00.000-08:00

American Airlines has some great deals to China and Japan right now. If you've ever wanted to go to China, this may be your big chance!

Hey, ya'll! Happy New Year!

2009-01-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

Sometimes you have not a thing to blog about, then you can't seem to stop. Lately, I've had stuff going on that I really can't blog about (I'm bound by HIPPA to maintain patient confidentiality) due to work or else it would be telling too much about a friend's or family's situation. So imagine my delight when I had things to blog about that shouldn't jeapodize my friendships, job, or membership in my family!

First, I have a new show to add to my list of favorites: Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on the Food Network! They caught my attention with Chino Bandito which offers a combination of two of my absolute favorite ethnic foods: Mexican and Chinese!!! And while I may never get to eat there, they had my attention. And Donatelli's in Minnesota (Hello, Michelle? I may HAVE to come to MN now) sounds like the sort of place I would want to eat at again and again. And the same guy, Guy Fieri, hosts a cook off type show where not yet celebrity cooks compete to have their recipe added to the menu at TGIFriday's. It's only too clear that I will HAVE to dvr these shows AND begin to spend time on the treadmill.

Second, Lydia said one of the saddest things ever: "Daddy! My heart is BROKEN." Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Goody's is liquidating all their stuff, Gene bought her a bracelet with various shades of pink hearts on it, and one of them fell out. So at the tender age of 27 months, Lydia's heart has been broken. She was quite prepared to throw the bracelet in the trash. She's not sentimental apparently.

Jolly Saint Nick

2008-12-03T12:56:00.000-08:00

Lydia and I went to the mall today, and look who was there! I am in for a really rough future if today was anything to go by. From the moment we walked in the mall, Lydia's face was radiant. She LOVED the shops. And, yes, we DO go shopping together. We just don't visit the mall very often. I haven't liked the mall since I graduated from college and had my first "real" job. I finally had money to spend, but when I went to the mall, I couldn't find anything I wanted. I felt like I was too old for the mall. Not any more!!! I'm back, and I have a shopping buddy!!!

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!!

2008-12-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

Downtown Holiday Jacket and Pant GIVEAWAY!!!! This is sooooooo cute!

Kandy Kisses Boutique Give Away

2008-11-20T18:50:00.000-08:00

Kandy Kisses Boutique is having a Black Friday HOURLY giveaway. Go check it out!

This one's for Shelle...

2008-11-12T19:34:00.000-08:00

On the one hand it seems like such a piddly little thing. On the other, it did result in saving two lives.

I used to work in a great big basement without any windows, and we had to cross the street to get to the employee parking. Many of the upstairs employees came downstairs to exit through our door as it was on the same street & same level as the parking lot.

I happened to be the last empoyee leaving my level, and I locked the door behind me. I noticed Shaquita was sitting on the loading dock, and I asked if she needed a ride. She told me no, her car was across the road, but she felt really tired and wanted to rest there for a minute before she went home. That was odd because she'd walked out of that door more than 15 minutes before.

If you're like me, you like to respect other people's privacy and allow them some dignity. I didn't want to pry, but I was getting the weirdest feeling not to leave her. I knew she was pregnant, and I knew she hadn't been feeling well. She was still in her first trimester which could have explained everything, but I couldn't leave her there. So, I sat next to her and told her I'd sit with her until she felt better. I said there was no hurry which wasn't exactly true as I had a home health patient I NEEDED to go see before I went home to make dinner.

She called a friend and asked her to pick her son up from daycare and to keep him for a while so she could lie down and take a nap. Then she asked me to drive her car over to the loading dock so she wouldn't have so far to walk. It wasn't much of a walk, it shouldn't have seemed like a daunting task to her, but I agreed. I even helped her into the car.

I went across the street to my own car, and I really would have liked to drive off to my patient's home. Again, I just felt like it would be a very bad thing to leave her there. She started her car and sat there for what seemed like a long time.

Eventually, I went back to her car to check on her. I called one of the upstairs employees for help. We decided to take her back inside, and she had to sit on a rolling chair to get her over to our mat table to lie down. Her color was lousy, she wasn't breathing right, and I asked if I could call for an ambulance. She said yes, and soon the paramedics were there giving her oxygen and taking her off to the hospital.

Shaquita had a pulmonary embolism, and she told me that the doctors said she and her baby would have died if she'd gone home and taken that nap she had planned on taking. So, just by taking the time to respond to that feeling that I shouldn't just walk past her like several other employees had to go about my own business led to life saving interventions for Shaquita and her baby. She called me her angel, but I'm pretty sure HER angel was talking to me. I just took the time to listen.

And my home health patient? Well, I had to reschedule, but it didn't change his outcome or mine. It made a world of difference to Shaquita and her family, though.

Have you ever?

2008-11-11T19:19:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd play along with this one. The highlighted items are things I've done. Mind you, some of these were done when I was little & have very little memory of them or none at all, but my parents said I did...

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (it's true, I was in the 2nd grade before I went tone deaf)
11. Bungee jumped (I've done the tethered thing at Six Flags Over Texas & won't willingly do it again)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (I don't think so, but I have held a baby kangaroo/joey)
26. Gone skinny dipping (think toddler)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (Li River in Guilin, China)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (again, think YOUNG)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (sort of: self defense in college covered some karate, judo, & jujitsu)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (sadly, they didn't show up)
63. Gotten flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job - Does being laid off/let go count?
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person I THINK we did this when I was a baby
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

If you decide to play along, leave me a note so I can visit and read your list

Nighty-Night

2008-10-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

After we got home, Lydia changed into her PJ's, brushed her teeth, listened to her bedtime story, said her prayers and went to sleep. Tonight, she actually took the lead during her prayer and asked God to bless Mommy, Daddy, GeGe, LuLu, and Unk. I suggested a few more blessings to which she'd agree, "Uh huh." Amen. It was a great day. Now, Mommy is going to put her feet up and watch an episode or two of "House" before she calls it a night.

Up from the nap

2008-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Look who woke up in a really good mood!

And who wouldn't be in a good mood when her Daddy picks her up after the nap?

Dinner was at El Chico with Uncle Rob, Aunt Tonya, and cousings Ross & Chris. Lydia LOVES chips and salsa and cheese dip. Yep, we eat healthy 24/7 around here.

Napping

2008-10-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

So mom can blog all about it. I told you I was blessed.

More about lunch

2008-10-17T13:38:00.000-07:00

Mom's yummy smoked chicken salad. Lydia gives the ranch dressing a taste test. Delicious! And watching a gumball spiral down the machine.

A little late for lunch

2008-10-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Happily coloring one minute & fussing the next. Clearly, I should have fed Lydia earlier.

Who is this woman trying to horn in on Lydia's picture? Lydia is trying to ignore her existence.
Finally! The french fries at Rib Crib are yummy, and the server was kind enough to keep them in the back until they were cool enough to eat. Don't you just love thoughtful people?

Then a visit with Meema

2008-10-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

Come on, Mommy! Let's go see Meema

Meema's pink cadillac.

She saves Lydia styrafoam cups which Lydia stacks, unstacks, and eventually throw in the trash.

Busy little bee

2008-10-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

Next we threw rocks into the creek behind the house.

Look at Lydia climb the steep stairs back up to the house.
She's still got energy to burn!

And then

2008-10-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

Lydia shows Resin his eye and then a little love.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! "Let's read it," is one of Lydia's favorite phrases.

Hope shows Lydia some love. Unlike Resin, Hope is a real, live dalmatian.