A Perfect Saturday

On this past Saturday, we loaded The Bean up and headed out for some family fun. Leslie and I decided that it would be nice to take Bean canoeing for the day. We found a river, rented a boat and took off. I was surprised at what a nice time we all had. I really thought that Bean would worry and fret the whole day, but I was pleasantly surprised. The weather was perfect, just when you thought, "oh it's hot", you would drift under the trees and cool off, just when you thought"oh it's cool", you would drift out into the warm sunshine for a bit. We DID have one tip over and contrary to popular belief, it wasn't MY fault- it was Leslie's. I am working on not letting him forget that for a few years at least, as I was named "The Wild Card" heading into the trip. Bean loved the boat ride. We all loved it.
We all three just drifted lazily down the river, talking quietly and joking, watching the birds and such. We ended a bit wet but it was all fun. I also have a nice black/green bruise on my right leg form when we tipped over. Oh! Also about the tipping....Bean kept her cool and was the only one that managed to stay in the boat, so I promptly picked her up and plopped her in the river- Mama trumps Gravity.
We ended the day with some ice cream and then we went to Grandma's house for some Smokewood Time.
It was a great day and one that has gone down in my memory as one of the best days in my life.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Boy Crazy?

While driving around yesterday, Evelyn and I were stopped at a red light. This was possibly the luckiest red light of my life. Why, you ask?

Because standing on the corner, waiting for the light to change so he could jog on, stood a VERY hot and VERY handsome figure of a man (maybe 22?). He reminded me of Brad Pitt when he was young- think Thelma and Louise levels of Hawtness here. This was a FINE looking fella. FINE. And slighty sweaty and breathing heavy. And he had muscles. I was sitting there and remotely answering Ev as I was admiring this guy. Ev must have followed my line of sight because all of a sudden , she stopped mid-sentence and gasped. Then in a voice filled with wonder and light she said "OH! MY!!!! Mama WHO is that boy?!?!!"

THEN she said " I want to just kiss him! I really want to kiss that boy."

I said " Evelyn, where would you kiss him?"

E: Our wedding

M: Your wedding?

E: Yes, I am going to marry that boy. I don't even know his name. I don't need to know his name, he can tell me after the wedding!

Sadly, my hot son-in-law jogged off into the sunset.

Much to the dismay of mother and daughter.

The Learning Continues

• A nine year old boy is incapable of keeping a non-goofy expression for photos.
• Barbie Snatching is taboo. If you Barbie Snatch you are marked forever and no one will trust you.
• Play-Dough snatching is farther down the sin ladder than Barbie Snatching.
• If children hear an adult mutter the word "bastard", they will be compelled to repeat it as many times as possible in a 2 minute time span-or until the adult manages to convince them that it is, indeed, a cuss word. (it will still be funny and whispered for the duration of the afternoon however)
• Even though your parents sent a perfectly good, and yummy lunch, the schlock that your Aunt passes off for food will be far more appealing.
• Wiping with wall paper does not necesarily lead to a bladder infection. Also on this note, my toilet did not clog. Everybody wins!
• Endless rounds of "Couch Jumping" and "Gun Fight" do tend to make my left eye twitch.
• Movies made for children, good ones, are a thing sent to this earth by God Almighty Himself. I am completely convinced of this fact.

Adventures in Babysitting

This is not about that movie that the chic from Karate Kid was in...this is about me. I have taken a "summer job". I am babysitting Kate and Aden, (Bean's cousins) a few days a week through out the summer.
Today is my first day.
We have already had a few....ummm..happenings. Let's call them learning experiences, shall we?
The things I have learned so far today are:

• A nine year old boy arrives with toy guns. A nine year old boy gathers up all other toy guns in a three block radius. A nine year old boy will then proceed to use these toy guns to emphasize any and all conversational points. If said nine year old finds himself, inexplicably, with out a "gun" , he can and will use any thing in the near vicinity that resembles a gun to continue pontification.
• Those Nerf dart gun things are truly annoying to anyone who is NOT 1) a boy 2) under 15
• There is a law of nature that states a child's desire to watch a film is proportionately related to the desire of other children to watch the movie-conversely. This means that you can NOT get three children to agree on any single movie. You have to promise 2 movies- with your fingers crossed behind your back- and hope they move on.(they don't)
• No matter how little water you add to a Barbie pool with the accompanying threats about getting yourself , the floor, the cat wet? Your down stairs will be soaked and you will have to change at least one child.
• Your nine year old nephew lives in house where-in the Mother always closes the door. This means that when you are getting undressed to hop in the shower (because they came at 8 am and I DO NOT shower before 10 am), your nephew will start charging up the stairs to tell you that he is done with the movie now and you will shout out " ADEN! I...! UHHH!! In a minute! " . THIS nephew though has heard the story about the other nephew seeing me naked, accidentally, a few too many times (Scott was a baby then-his father wasn't-'nuff said?) and had things figured out before I stopped sputtering and ran hell bent for leather back down the stairs, thus preventing unsavory outcomes.( such as blindness, the need for therapy and the need to explain to his mother).
• When you do get all of the way naked and one leg into the shower you will realize a few things. Things like your house is quiet while the street is sounding a bit like Mogadishu, that you heard your door slam, like those voices out on the street sound eerily familiar. Then you will hastily and a bit dampily, wrap a towel around you and holler ( a la Whispering Pines style) out of a window for the hoodlums to return inside. Then you will get that same leg back into the shower and realize that the hoodlums are now pounding away and screaming at the back door as they have locked themselves out. Then you will fumble your clothes back on and go down to let them in. And try not to visit physical violence upon their bodies.
• I also learned the it may not be a good idea to combine the idea of helping me strip the bathroom wall paper off the walls with a talk about "using the bathroom". This may confuse certain 6 year old nieces and they MAY think that you mean them to use the wall paper as toilet paper. I am waiting to see how the toilet will handle a bit of old vinyl wall paper......
• When you are applying make-up around two young girls, it ends up being "beauty shop", no mater what you do. I am wearing a shockingly small amount of make-up for this crowd.
• My niece thinks that barbies who swim naked are morally reprehensible.

It's only 1 pm as I write this. My goodness what will I have learned once the summer is complete?

Growing Pains

I realize that I have been a bit of a slacker kind of blogger lately. It's just that I stopped slacking in other areas and I find that I am out of time by the time the day winds down. I have also sworn to limit my computer time in an attempt to have more time to play with The Bean. So far though, all I have is more time to paint her bedroom (it looks great by the way- just one more coat of the color and 2 coats on the trim to go) and a bit more time to work on the adoption.

Working on the adoption is a good thing though, even if some play time is sacrificed, I mean- who else is going to wrestle this stuff and make a baby out of it? Me that's who.

Then also with The Bean, she has had some ummm, issues lately. She has been having, and giving us, some growing pains. She has reached a new level of mental and emotional growth but not yet obtained the control to go along with it. This means that we face some very old issues with her origins and at the same time we get a whole bunch of new stuff added in. It's like she's a blasted teenager already! (GAHHHH! The teen years, I can NOT let myself think on those coming days, else I fret and worry and vomit. )

Some of the things that have been happening (in no specific order) are:

• Blatant outlaw-ishness


• Blatant disobedience


• Lackadaisical response to parental requests


• Saying nasty and hurtful things to her cousins (things that make them cry in bewilderment and hurt)


• Acting decidedly ungrateful (and downright nasty) when presents and surprises are given to her


• Also her need to control every eventuality and ALL of the things going on around her are exhausting me. I am just worn out by her need to control.


• The talking. Yes, she talks through it all. (as an example I am sitting here typing while she is holding an out and out discourse/review of the Twilight Princess/Link game. And I am required to respond intelligently. Please do not suggest that I tell her to be quiet, I have to save those requests for when my ears are jelly- also she CAN NOT - NOT talk)

Is she still cute? Yes. Am I still over the moon for her? Absolutely.

She is still, The Bean. She still is sweet and loving (on her terms). She is bright and funny. Basically I am trying to say that even though we are having some hard days, we are still here. Being us. Loving Ev and playing with her. We are trying to help her learn some control of herself and remind her how to be the nice girl that we know she is.

It just doesn't make for interesting blogging.

Near! Far!

If you can imagine Grover, right up against the tv shouting ,"near!", then dancing waaaaayy back until he is a tiny blue spot and shouting "far!"- you will have an idea of my emotional outlook concerning The Younger.
Some days I feel like having a second child, being a family of 4, having another small one to snuggle....all of those things is just so close that I get nauseous and shaky with anticipation.
Some days I feel like I am slowing struggling up the side of a mountain and that we will never get to the top.
I still have so much to do with the paper work. I have to start the rounds of Notarization, Certification and Authentication. As well as organize our papers for Immigration. I was also pursuing Evelyn's passport and I thought that was all taken care of and then "WHAM!"- I get a letter asking for her Certificate of Citizenship-which was sent along with her passport stuff-which means that somewhere between here and New Orleans her CofC has been lost - so I am following up on THAT. I am also still chasing my Ohio Nursing License and need to find a job.
Ironically, I have NOT been frantically working away like a busy little bee. I have been slacking. I have gone into my typical stress mode which is called "avoidance" to the rest of the world. I really need to stop being a baby and just jump on the bandwagon and I will.
I remember that I had a period like this with The Bean's adoption. I just shut down for a bit. You want the baby, you need the baby but the process of obtaining the baby just drains you until there is nothing left for awhile. It's a combination of stressor avoidance and also a certain amount of grieving.
YES!!!! I KNOW!!!!! Grieving?!?!?!?! What the hell?!?!?! BUT you do. You KNOW that everything is about to get all topsy turvy. You know that you want it to. It's just that well, it's going to change. So you think "here is the end of this part of my life". I know that what follows is better. I know that what follows is miraculous. It's just that it is new and different. And I REALLY can not wait for it to happen. Does any of that make ANY sense? To anyone?!?!?
Welcome to my crazy train.
I can spend entire days in the "near" phase OR seconds. The same goes with the "far" phase. You just karoom between the two extremes and hope to God in Heaven that some dufus doesn't loose any of your paperwork.
(But they do. In two adoptions I have had some government official-y place loose something-each time so far. That helps with the stress and the hand wringing and the roiling nausea. It really instills a feeling of Faith In Government kind of thing.)

Then There Was A Gymnastics "Show"

The Bean has been in Gymnastics now for, what? , a few months? On Monday, we had the big, end of the "semester" ...ummm...."Show". Yes, I am being a bit sarcastic about the show because it was a bit of organized chaos. I was very proud of Bean. She did awesome! There were two hitches though.

One: they never had the entire group practice together so she was a bit put off by ALL of the kids and chaos that was there, she expected it to be a bit more like her classes are, I tried to prepare her but sometimes they just have to see for themselves. Then there was the skipping.

Two: My child can not skip. Period. She tries and it just looks like weird walking. So she grabbed her teacher's hand for that part. That's about it.

The place was crowded and I was thinking that she really wouldn't do anything out there, especially after she shot me the "I am angry about this situation and I am going to make someone PAY" look while they were all "warming up". However, when her favorite teacher smiled at her and encouraged her, she got right into the little routine and performed like a champ (all except for that damn skipping).

Then she got a medal.

Then flowers from Grandma, Lissa and Brevin.

Then dinner out at Olive Garden.

She has worn that medal every moment of the day since Miss Anita put it around her neck.

I have waited a long time to be a Mommy at one of those "you know you hate them but your kid is so cute and learned so much that you cry anyway" functions. It was pretty cool.