An Illuminating Experience

Yesterday, I had my youngest home from school with me. He's sick. Again. We REALLY should have gotten him a flu shot like we did last year.

It made for a long day. I love getting to spend the extra time with him, but sick kids are just needy.

So, evening comes along. It's 11:30 PM and I'm showered and ready to call it a night. Suddenly, I decide to do LAUNDRY. This is SO ME. Middle of the night cleaning frenzy. I work a bit then sit down to play some online Scrabble. I just need some alone time, you know?

I chat online.

Play more Scrabble.

Comment on some blogs.

You know how it goes.

Suddenly, it is 4 AM! HOW did that HAPPEN?

I dash upstairs and try to get some sleep asap.

This morning I'm drinking my tea (and yawning), when my NEIGHBOR (and best friend) calls.

"WHAT were you DOING last night? Are you OKAY?" she wants to know.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Well, it turns out she came downstairs in her OWN home last night and said that MY house was lit up like a BEACON in the night to the point were she DIDN'T NEED TO USE A LIGHT TO GET DOWN HER OWN STAIRS (yeah, our houses aren't that far apart).


And the funniest part of it all is that SHE'S ILL and she wants to know if I'M okay. Heck, I was just cleaning a bit and goofing around on the computer. I'm feeling a tad guilty that I worried her to such a degree that she'd call to check on me feeling like she does!

Plus, a bit disconcerted that THE NEIGHBORHOOD is aware of WHAT I'M UP TO AT NIGHT. EEKS! :)

An Adoption Story

Friday I wrote about my first memory which involved my parents adopting my brother Scott. Today I thought I'd tell you a little more about that story, mostly because I love it and it always makes me smile. I hope it makes you smile too. :)

I've never asked why and the information was never volunteered, but my parents did not have biological children. After about 6 years of being married, they decided to adopt. My mom in particular had prayed about this decision for a very long time. Years.

So, they dutifully went through the long process. They filled out applications and people came to do home visits. They were approved. Now to wait for a baby.

They weren't particular. They just wanted a baby, boy or girl.

At the time, there were almost NO girls available for adoption at this agency. Pretty much just me, and I was supposed to go to a different family. My parents were thrilled with either a boy OR a girl, so of course they were slated to adopt a boy.

A minister that worked with the adoption agency stepped in and said that he believed I should go to my parents instead. It was very odd, but they SWITCHED me over to my parents. Maybe they felt it was a better match and just needed to hear someone else say it. But, I believe God was watching out for me.

And then 2 years later, my brother Scott was in foster care, aged 3 months old, and up for adoption. My parents were delighted to complete our family.

One day a year or so later, my mom was giving both of us a bath and she suddenly noticed that Scott and I have IDENTICAL birthmarks on our sides. IDENTICAL. When I was a teen, she told me that she felt shivery when she saw the birthmarks, like God was telling her that HE provided her family and it was all His plan.

It was very cool. Even though adopted, I have always felt a complete part of my family, like it was handpicked. It was such a good match in many ways, that I often thought the OPPOSITE of what biological kids think... instead of wondering if I was ADOPTED, I actually wondered if it wasn't all a big SCAM and I was really biological! :)

My First Memory (Plus)

Wow! I've been a baaaad blogger of late! :) I've still been enjoying visiting my bloggy friends on their sites, but I haven't felt like writing anything. No reason. Just no muse, I guess. Maybe I just need some sunshine.

With that in mind, I decided to write about something happy today, my first memory.

I was barely 2 years old and my parents had been accepted as adoptive parents to a baby boy. We all traveled down to the agency in Long Beach, California to meet him. I remember the nurses taking me by myself into a separate room with baby Scott. They gave me a blue rattle to show him. I remember being rather awestruck of the entire thing.

The thing was, I thought ALL people added babies to their families this way. (High school health class came as a REAL SHOCK, let me tell ya!) :)

And I also thought EXCHANGING babies would be equally as easy as picking them up!

So, even though I liked him at first, I later REALLY wanted to exchange him for a girl. :)

I must have known what was coming. When he reached high school he GREW very tall and was on the football team. Suddenly, it was HILARIOUS to dangle his big sister upside-down by my feet until I practically hyperventilated. :) He remembers that fondly to this day, I believe.

Me, I still kinda wish I had a sister too. :)

Rent-A-Robert

Rob and I went shopping on Friday night. Let me just assure you that he was THRILLED with this activity. THRILLED. Really. I could barely restrain him from wanting to leave early and go to extra stores. Ahem.

So, after I used the cattle prod and got him in the car...

We went shopping for new dress clothes for him. His old dress pants were horrible. They desperately needed replaced. I'd been out during my day of leisure :) at the same store and I'd noticed a good sale.

We got there and I took him straight to the sale pants. He approved. He started trying them on. Now, for some unknown reason, he dislikes for me to browse while he's doing this. But, I did anyway. I'm like that. I found a FABULOUS peach-colored dress shirt and an AWESOME rather hip tie to go with it. It matched the new brown dress pants beautifully. I told him the shirt was orange. :)

We gathered up all our purchases (he let me include a brand-new purse ... wasn't that sweet?) ...



... and made our way to the cash register.

The cashier was looking a bit frazzled. It was Friday the 13th and evidently the loonies were out in force. So, we tried to be nice. Rob in particular was being charming. He's accustomed to calming down frazzled women. After all, he lives with ME. :)

So, I handed the cashier my % off coupon. She looked at it and then looked at our rather high total. Her eyes traveled over the people in our immediate vicinity. I thought this was rather odd. Then with a FLIRTATIOUS GIGGLE and a glance at ROB, she whipped out her EMPLOYEE DISCOUNT card and scanned it in so we saved an extra TWENTY DOLLARS.

I was THRILLED.

I am taking Rob shopping MORE OFTEN.

He is NOT thrilled. :)

Anyone want to rent a Rent-A-Robert? :) He's worth the rental fee just for the extra savings you'll find shopping! :)

It's DONE at LAST!

This is my mom & dad's 50th Anniversary cake. It's finally done! Isn't it cute to have an anniversary on Valentine's Day? We are celebrating tomorrow because the restaurants are so crowded today.

My 12-year-old daughter Sarah picked the colors, but they are fitting because it's a Valentine's Day anniversary. And, I admit, I didn't have metallic gold food coloring. :)

See all the white conversation hearts in the pink flowers? Notice that they are turned so you can't read the printing? That's because out of 2 boxes of hearts, there were very few in white and most said things like, "Hot Mama." Well, maybe not that steamy, but you get the idea, not for your mom's 50th anniversary cake. :)

I worked on this thing ALL DAY off and on. I baked THREE cakes and made SIX pounds of icing! I loved it! :)

The bottom layer has a homemade apple filling. I can't wait to try it! I've never made a filling for a cake before. But, the leftovers in the pan sure were tasty! :)

I just hope mom and dad like it! It's very very VERY pink, after all. :) It's going to have to stay that way because I can't think of anything to make it more manly.

Step Away from the Rice

Today is Valentine's Day. Rob's been wanting General Tso's Chicken and since I am perfectly capable of buying a box of it at Sam's Club, I picked up a box today.

I forgot about the rice that would have to go with it. Rice and I are incompatible. Read here for proof! :)

But, I decided to just approach it head on. I got out the rice cooker. I located the rice. I even have a choice of clearly labeled rice types.

I decided to use the baggy of rice that was already open. So, I slide the zip lock at the top open and somehow spill rice all over the floor! A huge heaping mound of it! Fortunately, the collies find raw rice to be delicious.

So, once again, Rob took over the rice making for me. Can I just buy premade rice? :) I just don't get this at all!!! :) I think I may have some sort of rice phobia.

This Life of Leisure....

This life of leisure I have going is absolutely exhausting!

Up at 7 AM.
Exercise at the gym at 8 AM.
Go shopping with mom at 9:30 AM.
(Spend $40 of Rob's hard-earned money.)
Lunch out at noon. Mom's treat. (Thanks Mom!) :)
Swimming at 2 PM.
Email bloggy buddies and friends, 3:30 PM - 4:00 PM.
Eat chocolate snack at 4 PM.

4:30 PM - actually do some work by starting dinner.

I'm exhausted! :) I am SUCH a valuable wife! :) (haha!) I better watch it or Rob is going to be looking for a new one! :)

Now, where are my pearls?

Music Monday - Something Beautiful

This is absolutely my favorite song. I love the Newsboys. They are Australian. Need I say more? :)

These lines get me every time:

"When we laugh so hard we cry
all the love between you and I
Something beautiful"

I hope you enjoy it too!



"Something Beautiful" Lyrics:

I wanna start it over
I wanna start again
I wanna new beginning
One without an end

I feel it inside
Calling out to me

It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful

I've heard it in the silence
Seen it on a face
I've felt it in a long hour
Like a sweet embrace
I know this is true
It's calling out to me

It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful

It's the child on her wedding day
It's the daddy that gives her away
Something beautiful
When we laugh so hard we cry
all the love between you and I
Something beautiful

It's a voice that whispers my name
It's a kiss without any shame
Something beautiful
Like a song that stirs in my head
Singing love will take us where
Something's beautiful

It's the child on her wedding day
It's the daddy that gives her away
Something beautiful
When we laugh so hard we cry
It's the love between you and I
Something beautiful

Something beautiful

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

How Much Is Too Much?

I am surrounded by sick people. My husband's been home for two days with the flu. What is it about men that have been home too long wanting to revamp certain housekeeping habits?

Really. What's up with that?

Did he lay on the couch thinking about the state of our pantry during his convalescence?

He was up and about and lurking in the kitchen as I started dinner tonight. I made a comment about how I've been trying to use up the food in the freezer and that's why our food bill this month has been so low. (At this point I was expecting kudos, of course).

He comments that he has heard that is the best thing to do when trying to stick to a budget. That is, eat the food you have before buying more. And then he rather pointedly looks in the pantry at the stack of Jello boxes.

He has a theory that if I would just use up all our Jello before buying more, our food budget would always be under control.

Okaaaay.

I debate this, of course. We have 3 kids. All have their favorite flavors. Kids that are sick and grumpy want "their" flavor. I don't care to argue at that point. I just stock the flavors they like. I like to be prepared. And I am stocking JELLO, for pete's sake, not gold bullion.

I mention this.

He looks at me somewhat askance.

And then (heaven help me), he starts counting Jello boxes. (Darn it, who stacked those so neatly?)

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13- "STOP!" I yell in defeat! "OUT of the kitchen!" I demand!

He is going to work tomorrow with JELLO for lunch. :)

A Blog Bet

Speedy was so funny with his sign after losing our blog bet, that I had to post it here! He has it on his blog too.

Isn't it eye-catching?

It made my entire family smile, so I'm posting it here in hopes that it will bring smiles to some of you as well.

The Steelers WON, the sun is SHINING, all is well with the world. :)

PS: There is a really great sweater for sale on eBay! :)

I made a grave error today...

Today started out as a normal day. It's Sunday. We have to be at church by 9 AM. I'm running late. All normal. :)

I throw on my sweater over my turtleneck and dash out the door. Everyone is waiting in the car for me, although that is because I worked on the kids' hair before my own. Really! I would have been done first otherwise! :)

And off we go! We arrive, dash into church (am I a bad person for always making the minister, my husband, late?), send the kids off to choir practice, and start the routine.

I have 1/2 hour before I go down to Tommy's class for their Bible Bowl (which involves a football-style quiz game covering questions from their Sunday School curriculum). It's the parents vs. the kids. You would THINK the parents would win, having people like the MINISTER on their team, but no, we were slaughtered. Kind of makes you wonder, doesn't it? :)

But, I digress.

Before the Bible Bowl, I was chatting in the church office with a friend. Of course, we were talking about the big Steelers game today. Apparently some team named the Cardinals is also going to show up. :) Everyone has big party plans for today!

Then I walk downstairs to the Sunday School rooms. I walk past the adult class and I notice that EVERYONE is wearing black and gold. EVERY. SINGLE. PERSON. Darn! I should have worn black and gold too! That's what I get for being late.

I walk into Tommy's class. I feel eyes whipping toward me. Odd. I'm only a minute late and they don't look to have started yet.

Then I hear it. "WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?" And I see red eyes shooting sparks my way. OH-OH!

I look down. And I see THIS:



I think I may need to find a new hometown after this!

Tommy quickly took stock of the situation and grabbed some room decor. That's why I have a gold ribbon necklace. I had to think fast but my STORY became this:
"Oh, this is a SYMBOLIC outfit! See the ribbon? It's STEELER ribbon! It's to show how they are going to TIE UP the Cardinals today!"

Do you think they bought it? Yeah. I don't either. But at least the red sparks died down.

Seriously, I had people tell me I had to go home and change! One person who was leaving after Sunday School offered to CHANGE CLOTHES with me so I wouldn't have to sit through church in such a HORRID outfit! It was suggested I turn my sweater inside out!

But, I resisted all that and stood strong behind my "tying up the Cardinals" story. :)

I sneaked into church at a fast clip hoping to not be noticed by any more black and gold wearing fans.

I sat down.

I looked at my bulletin.

And I noticed that our church secretary has sly sense of humor because our gold bulletin that is printed with black letters also had TWO CARDINALS at the top of the front page.

The irony. :)