They really do love each other

Saturday, Sunday, Monday in the Park

One of the things I like best about where we live is that there is some kind of park about every mile or so. Since Charlie works on Sundays, in the summer the kids and I try to find a new park at least a couple of times a month. Last summer we went south of our house. This summer we are going west.

On this long weekend, we visited 3 parks and today's park was especially nice. It was full of kids of all shapes and sizes. We brought a picnic lunch and the kids ran around for almost 3 hours. Annie found a little girl to teeter totter with and Jack and Bethany found sticks to be Samurais with. I sat on a bench in the sun, and read a little, but mostly watched kids and dogs and squirrels and birds and moms and dads enjoying the spring.

Two Picnics in a row

Yesterday we met some friends for a picnic in a park and then had our first experience geocaching - it was pretty fun! We found 7 of them with their help. The kids really liked finding "treasure." Charlie liked messing around with the GPS and I was just happy we got out and about and the weather was decent.

Charlie worked today, so the kids and I went to see my Mom for another picnic in another park. Weather was a little iffy, but we got some good play time in. These are pictures of the weekend!

At Least One Thing a Day.

We have too much stuff. Unbelievable, ridiculous, maybe even immoral, amounts of stuff. We have a very small house that is filled to the rafters. This includes the garage, the shed, the finished basement and the attic. We have 5 people, 2 dogs and 2 cats and really need the space currently occupied by stuff. When Charlie and I got our little place over coast, somehow I thought it would take a lot of the overflow. Which it did, to some exten, but now it's kind of full of stuff too. So last week, in the midst of spring cleaning fever, I decided that I could commit to giving away at least one (hopefuly more) thing a day for as long as possible. So far, it's been multiple bags of books to the book exchange at work, 3 large bags of clothes to a clothing drive, a couch, a dresser.

Today, we are taking a bag of things to Goodwill. So far we have some kids clothes, some of my clothes and the kids are right now looking for the one thing they have to give away today. This is a difficult task for them, so we are starting small (some Happy Meal toys, some small toys like play jewelry). The kids are going to give something away each week and I think we will need to work up to some bigger things. Some of their stuff we will probably sell on Craigslist and anything we get for that will have to be saved.

So we will see how this goes. The trick is going to be giving away more things than we bring in. Though we got something like 125 items of clothing yesterday from Craigslist yesterday, we have given away more than that in the last week (clearly their dressers and closets needed clearing out). I hope we can keep this up.

Why I Heart Craigslist

So my family has been big on garage sales, consignment, resale and thrift stores for a long time. Craigslist kind of combines all those things while letting you shop at home, so for me, it's been a perfect place to find kids' clothes, electronic stuff, etc, etc. A good share of the kids' wardrobe has come from clothing lots on Craigslist for the last couple of years. Today we scored big. I am so amazed by these girls clothes I had to write to boast about them--we got 130 things for 60 bucks and everything looked new. No stains, no tears and no sign of wear and all really expensive brands (we don't buy much Nike stuff new here). In fact there were several things that clearly had never been worn, including jeans and swimsuits and shirts. What was a little odd was that the seller said that she was selling them because her daughter outgrew them -there were about 10 sets of identical things (like they would have been for twins or something. This was good though, since the girls liked almost everything so it made for less fighting. The stuff that doesn't fit will be donated to a clothing drive at my job. So now they are pretty much set for months and months. Now I just have to find a place for it all.


Another reason to love Craigslist - we had a dresser I loved that became almost unusable (this happens when children pull out the drawers and use them as a ladder). So out on the curb it went and a posting went on Craigslist in the free section. And within a couple of hours it found a new home. More stuff will hopefully go tomorrow. Can you tell we are spring cleaning?

Mothers' Day is tonorrow

Bethany LOVES her Grandma


As always at this time of year, I am thinking about all the different Moms in my life.

My friends from high school became mothers at a much earlier age than I did and many are grandmas now.

There are moms I "know" through online adoption groups. Many of them have adopted 5,6 or more kids. Some have adopted children with significant medical needs and, sometimes, uncertain futures. They are awe-inspiring.

There is my friend Monique, who is going to have her first child in September and will be an amazing, amazing Mother.

And there are three mothers on the other side of the world who I will likely never meet. Because of them, I am a mom. I don't know the circumstances that led them to give up these precious children of mine. I hope that it was because they thought it was the only path to a healthy and safe life for the child. I do know they were all left in places where they would be quickly found. I imagine that those birth mothers must think of these children every day. I can't really get a handle on, though, what it would be like to never know what happened to them. Are they safe? Are they happy? Did they even survive? But in reality, I just don't know what those mothers think.

Then there is my Mom. In a few weeks, she will be 80 years old. Like everyone, she has weathered many challenges in life. She has significant health issues that I doubt many people could face with the strength, grace and just plain stubbornness she has. She was one of the first people we told when we decided to adopt and couldn't have been more supportive. She opened her heart and her arms to the three of them and they love their Grandma with all their hearts. I told them a little while ago that we were going to go see Grandma tomorrow and they all squealed with excitement.

My sister and I sometimes joke that we are turning into our Mom--we should be so lucky. Love you, Mom!

How to do a Pony tail

Bethany has been trying to grow out her hair forever. Unfortunately, she has hair like mine, very fine and kind of wispy. She also has an amazing cowlick on one side that causes her hair to stand straight up. But she has refused to let us do more than trim the ends and is determined to grow her bangs out so her hair will be like her older sister's.

Today I ran across a list that Bethany wrote, I think that Annie dictated it, on how to do her hair

Pot 1: Brush your hair first

Pot 2: Get the sponge and get it wet and get it wet on my hair.

Pot 3: Clip my bang.

Pot 4: Use the glitter thing and wet on my hair and hair and get it wet.

Pot 5: Put Hairtie in and do a pony on my hair.

The list is illustrated with drawings and carefully placed by her bed for future reference.
Although the pony is out in the above picture, the "glitter thing" is still in place. She is too cute.

Easter Weekend - and it's sunny!

Alas, the clouds are supposed to come in tonight, but today feels like spring. We had lunch with my parents and my sister and her family, then hit the park for a little bit. Just a lovely day.

Update on Jack

So we got to come home late yesterday. Jack slept for a while after surgery, then woke up and wanted to play computer games. He had a pretty decent lunch and everything was functioning well so they let us out. He was so cute, one of the nurses brought around some balloons from somewhere and the first thing he asked was if he could have two extras, for his two sisters. On a side note, balloons are thankfully becoming less traumatic in our house, For several years, the girls became very attached to any balloon they received and named them all "Balloony." One birthday, the Balloony of the moment decided to leave us and go on an adventure all by himself and it was a very difficult time for everyone.

Anyway, poor Jack is struggling with pain issues as he did with the last surgery. I would, too, if I had four very large incisions (one on either side of each knee). He remembers his last surgery very well, unfortunately, so is even more sensitive to even the beginnings of pain. We moved his bed out into the living room and he gets to spend the week watching TV and playing video games with Daddy. Hopefully tomorrow we can get him up in the walker for a little bit. This was our sixth surgery at Shriners between the three kids and it sure never gets any easier. Thank goodness for Shriners, though, it is an amazing place. Jack told Charlie today that he doesn't want to have any more surgeries. It's so tough to know your child is in pain, even though we know that this is something that can't be fixed when he's an adult and the consequences of not fixing it now will affect him forever. Still, when he's crying, you just want it all to be better.

Now it's a waiting game, in 3 months we get another xray and find out if the straightening of his legs is about the same, has reverted or might even be getting better. We are hoping and praying for the last one --any other prayers would be appreciated.

Easter Eggs and Surgery

We spent the afternoon at my sister's house, coloring Easter eggs, a tradition since Annie first came home. The kids loved it and have colorful hands to show for it.

Jack's orthopedic specialist called Thursday night and due to some new information he found, they decided to go ahead and take the hardware out of Jack's legs as there is a chance his growth could be affected permanently. The good news is that his legs have straightened 80-90% since the plates went in. Now we wait to see if they stay the same as he grows, revert or (small possibility) get better on their own. He may have to have them put back in at some point, but it's just a waiting game. This surgery should be a lot shorter than last time, so hopefully all will go well and we will be home tomorrow afternoon.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from today. Or there will be some pictures later as Blogger's not letting me upload right now!

This is not for the faint of heart

In the last two days, I've been:

~thrown up on in my favorite grocery store, necessitating a frantic race with with a barfed- on child wailing in the grocery cart and a furtive trip out the door (a kind passerby notified store personnel for me). This meant that I had to drive 10 miles out of the way to go to a different grocery store the next day, because they know me at the first store and I

~provided dinner and snacks to two school friends that I did not know were coming for a playdate until 10 mins before they showed up,

~been told by all three of them "You NEVER pay any attention to me because you love Annie/Bethany/Jack more"

~been assured that other Moms would allow their 7,8 and 9 year olds to walk home after school and stay by themselves for 3 hours til I come home (never mind that there is actually a law against that here).

~Had several other infractions of Good Mommyhood that I don't quite understand but which my children assure me that I incurred.

Now I am going to be a Good Mommy (in their eyes) and a Bad Mommy (in mine) and going to my room BY MYSELF while leaving them to play the evil Batman Lego Wii game.

Back to Reality

Just spent a week at the beach for Spring Break. It rained most of the time, which was actually okay, as we spent a lot of time hanging out in front of the fireplace, playing games and watching awful TV shows. The best part of the week for the kids was that we found a swimming pool at a local camp that is open to the public at certain times during the week. They had an absolute blast.

Here are a few pictures, as usual, I took so many that it will take me forever to go through them, which means this will probably be it!

Help bring Max home

Here's a great fundraiser to help this family bring home the most adorable little boy from China. His big brother is from Annie's orphanage!

http://fromlouisiana2china.blogspot.com/2011/03/first-major-fundraiser-to-bring-max.html

Iron Chefs Annie, Bethany and Jack

Charlie and I are bravely attempting to finish dinner, as served by our very creative children.

Dinner #17 was chosen for me--this was noodles, nicely folded lunch meat, a fig newton with a fruit roll wrapped around it and another fruit roll that is filled with something crunchy, I suspect it might be a chip of some kind. I am a little bit afraid to take a bite.

Charlie was served Dinner #98, which seems to be remarkably similar to Dinner #17, except that he was given green tea and mine came with water. I wish I'd thought to take some pictures before we started eating because the food was presented very attractively on special plates with chopsticks. As you might be able to tell, we watch the Food Network at our house a lot.

We were just presented with our bill, which shows Order #17, #18 and #98. I am not sure who got Dinner #18. The bill includes a section for comments and asks if we would like anything else. Our total for this amazing repast is $17.82. At the bottom, it says in big letters "THANK YOU FOR COMING."

These kids are pretty amazing.

Addendum: took a bite of the scary fruit roll thing. The filling was not chips. There was something squishy in the middle. I don't know what it is and I don't want to know.

Miss BB

Bad Teacher...Bad, Bad Teacher

What kind of teacher offers a 9 year old girl a free bunny, complete with cage and then tells her, just make sure your parents agree?? Argh! I just spent 20 minutes with Annie on the phone explaining why we can't have a bunny (I would actually love to have a bunny for a pet, but we have 2 cats and 2 dogs who would thoroughly enjoy chasing a little bunny around the house). Plus we have no place to put a bunny and what would we do with one when we go on vacation.

So now I have one whiney, angry little girl coming home who feels like she has the meanest parents in the whole world. And Annie in a bad mood is not a fun thing.

Thanks a lot, Mr. 4th Grade Reading Teacher.